>From a U.S. Air Force pamphlet on the art of choosing bombing targets, on
the FAS website <http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/usaf/afpam14-210/part15.htm>:
"By the 1930s the Air Corps developed a doctrine based on the belief that airpower could achieve victory by breaking the enemy's will and capability to fight. It would accomplish this by:
Destroying organic industrial systems in the enemy interior that provided for the enemy's armed forces in the field; and paralyzing the organic industrial, economic, and civic systems that maintained the life of the enemy nation itself."
Just don't use those Apache helicopters, though - the crews might be put at risk! From today's New York Times article reporting on Pentagon reluctance to deploy them:
<quote> A major Pentagon concern is that the mission is too risky. As long as the weather is good, NATO should rely on attacks from combat planes that bomb from high altitude, they say.
"The Army's concern is that this is a very dangerous mission," a Pentagon official said. "The avenues into Kosovo are limited, and the opportunity for shoulder-held weapons is very real. We have to really have all our act together. No one thinks the mission can't be done, but in an age when the American people believe we're in a zero-defects war, there's real apprehension we're going to bring solders back in body bags."
NATO officials said that if attacks deep into Kosovo are too dangerous, the Apaches could still be used to attack Serbian forces during one of their regular incursions into Albania. Or the Apaches could fire at Serbian troops just across the border while hovering over Albania. Another Pentagon objection pertains to barrages of rockets and artillery that would precede the Apache attacks. While the rockets would be aimed at air defenses, there are no NATO ground troops in Kosovo to direct the fire, raising the prospect of civilian casualties.
NATO officials said, though, that the risk might be minimized by using unmanned reconnaissance drones.
A final Pentagon argument is that launching Apache and surface-to-surface rocket attacks against Serbian forces might prompt the Yugoslav military to retaliate."
Heavens, the enemy might fight back! So, stick to bombing cities, factories, and playgrounds; a few thousand civilian casualties are a small price to pay for avoiding enemy return fire. And nothing like destroying factories and killing civilians to "destroy organic industrial systems" and the "civic systems that maintain the life of the enemy nation itself."
Doug