Shock and awe
 

I remember how the start of Gulf War I played out in my own life. I was away from home for a corporate training class, so we had no concept of what was going on in the world. I got back late one night, turned on the hotel TV, and watched tracers flying up into the Baghdad sky. It made for interesting conversation the next day.

How'd it play out for you?

Playful prediction: it's not going to work this way, this time. This time, a shitload of smaller bombs is going to hit all at once on day one. We'll turn on the TV and see... nothing, because there won't be any pretty shots of tracers. Two-thirds of the anti-aircraft gunners won't shoot at all; a bunch more will never get the order to shoot because communications will be gone after the first hour.

The pictures we'll get will be in the morning, Friday morning I guess, of black smoke rising from intentionally-set oil fires and, hopefully, army bases and presidential palaces that are entirely flattened.

That's the hope anyway.

May it be swift and decisive (for our side, of course).

I'm trying to remember if there is anything that particularly stands out for me, from when Desert Shield became Desert Storm ... not especially, although my boss at the time decided I was a brilliant military strategist because I called the start time correctly. (There's not a lot of mystery involved ... attacking the enemy in the middle of the night watch is pretty straightforward. It's when troops are most likely to be not paying attention.)

But anyway ...

I had several friends deployed as part of Desert Storm, and more this time around, it seems (between real life and online friends).

This should be a fairly photogenic war. Lots of video-game like guncam shots at the very least. I think you'll get your tracers, Toad. Don't worry too much about that.

I'm wondering how much of the "Welcome Americans, please take our rifles" footage we'll get this time out.

I'm also wondering if the 48 hour ultimatim will have the side effect (intended perhaps?) of encouraging them to shoot first.

From what I heard this morning, going in before the 48 hours is up is also an option (since Iraq already said "Ha!").

I was cooking dinner, and listening to CNN. They were interviewing somebody relatively important (maybe Henry Kissinger?) and all of a sudden they cut in on the interview to announce that it was starting.

Hey, cut that out!

Argh, I've been tricked into watching CNN!

I was a 22 year old whelp, with the same goatee, wondering if the US was going to draft me. I was thinking that I was a good shot with a rifle, and that was in really good shape, and I was praying really hard that if I went, I would be able to pull a Neo and dodge any bullets headed my way.

This is going to be another short war, and it will end the way the first damn one should have, with Saddam in exile or discovered beneath a big pile of rubble riddled full of .223 holes fired by M-[This post censored by the Total Information Awareness junta]

Supposedly in Baghdad, the Iraqis are setting up oil drums and such to provide a smoke screen to hide targets from American bombs.

Uhh, guys, can you say "GPS/INS guided bombs"? The US already knows where the stationary targets are, hiding them won't do a thing.

I's guess special ops forces have already been out and disconnected most of the lines to the explosives at the oil wells. And it strikes me that following those things back to their source is a really nice way to find command and control centers.

Prediction: The Iraqi army isn't going to know what hit it, and when they figure it out, they'll be a run on white flags that will make the 1991 war look like staunch resistance.

Actually this was on my mind as well.. I was 21 during Gulf War I. I was curious whether my extreme bad eyesight would disqualify me or not. ("OK move em out!!!" "I'll be right there Sergeant, I lost my contact")

Gulf War v1.0 came out in, what? 1991?...

I was 4 then. It seems safe to say that I don't really remember the start of it. I do recall writing a letter to the current Bush, though. Something along the lines of "this seems kinda silly".

He sent me back an autographed photo of him standing in front of a plane, shaking somebody's hand, as I recall.

I've only recently started to pay any attention to world politics. I think my current semi-interest mostly stems from having close friends that do not live in the same school district as me.

This little shindig will be the first militiary action that I've been aware of and (to a degree) informed about from start to finish. I've heard there was a lot of footage of Mk I on the various news-despensing-channels. I wonder if they'll do the same thing this time.

New footage of Dan Rather cowering under a bed in Tel Aviv might be entertaining ...

This will probably be one of the best covered by video wars ever. (They will have to use a lot of slow mo instant replay so we can see what happened. It's gonna be over in less time than the average NFL regular season game.)

Come on Dan. Be a *human shield*, go directly to Baghdad!!

Iraqi troops are already defecting across the Kuwaiti Border ... (according to the story they started walking across the border well before the expiration of the deadline)

They aren't even waiting for there to be reporters to surrender to this time.

That makes Skunks... 15 or 16. Damn! He always seemed older!

It's probably a she too. Skunks had us all fooled. Probably a fake Mac user too. :)

I am currently in shock over how little I've seen and will be in awe if those few strikes got Saddam.

Technology these days...amazing stuff.