Jordan Springboard

And what about deploying V Corps headquarters to Kuwait? That puzzled me, though the relief that a heavy force would invade distracted me. Why use V Corps to command 3rd Infantry and 101st Airborne, which are already under XVIII Airborne Corps? Why use a corps headquarters unfamiliar with the troops or region? Why? To be Patton’s phantom army in 1944 sitting across from the densest German defenses at the narrowest point in the English Channel. The Germans thought it was real and when the real invasion started at Normandy they thought it was a diversion.

Give V Corps an armored cavalry regiment to simulate the leading edge of the invasion force and lots of sloppily emitting radio sets. With the Brits and Marines driving for Basra and the Euphrates, “V Corps” drives north to their west.

In the meantime, XVIII Corps with two heavy divisions advances in from Jordan with the Air Force flying in the 101st Division into H-3. Perhaps we’ll seize it with Rangers or a parachute brigade before the armor even gets there.

Man, there are so many shipments of equipment going to and fro that it could be taking place. Who knows where any of that stuff is going? We assume it is to Kuwait. And then, carriers in the Med. will be close to the action too. Carriers in the Arabian Sea can go to the Red Sea and avoid the Gulf completely. We won’t have to worry about the Iranians getting loopy. Is that why it leaked that we are pressuring Iran to let us use their air space?

I could be completely off. There are so many plans out there that could be used that the Iraqis must be spinning. Shoot, maybe we are going in small-corps strength from Jordan and Kuwait. That’s possible, too.

If I had to bet at this exact moment, I’d say Jordan. I may change my mind in a week or month. But after thinking Kuwait would be the jump-off point for the main effort for so long, it is remarkably easy for me to switch to this theory. We might get decisive victory and low cost yet. Tommy Franks, you may well surpass Inchon in the annals of military maneuvers.