This article says 4th Infantry Division is heading to the Gulf. This is our newest, digitized division, with heavy armor networked into a force that should be able to react and act with speed previously unseen in armored warfare. It is a risk and a chance to test the new division. If the heavy forces of this division can't work in a networked environment, how will the next generation of light future combat systems? It might even be able to work with a task force of one of our new Stryker Brigades if that project has been accelerated enough.
Yet will we really send yet another heavy division to the Gulf? My main guess is that this is a red herring designed to be the benchmark for determining when we can go to war. If everyone waits for this premiere division to reach the Gulf, we could get tactical surprise attacking early.
Yet the division would be useful for any of our main tasks in the Gulf, from attacking out of Kuwait in a feint yet capable of transitioning to a secondary thrust north to Baghdad up the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; to spearheading the main effort to hit Baghdad from the west; to advancing out of Turkey to spearhead a Turkish advance to seize the oil fields in the north before Saddam can torch them.
Yet as useful as these tasks are, we could probably accomplish all the missions without 4th ID's unique capabilities.
Certainly an interesting development and one of many that seem to indicate a later invasion. I just don't believe them.
On to Baghdad.
About Me
- Brian J. Dunn
- I live and write in Ann Arbor, Michigan. University of Michigan AB and MA from Eastern Michigan University. One term in the Michigan Army National Guard. Former American history instructor and retired nonpartisan research analyst. I write on Blogger and Substack. Various military and private journals have published my occasional articles on military subjects. See "My Published Works" on the TDR web version or under the mobile version drop-down menu for citations and links.
