The Iraqi military in it's prime under saddam was the 4th largest in the world. They had about 4000 tanks around 900 aircraft total. Though they had large numbers the Americans had vastly superior technology.
True.
Although Iraqi war-machine was battle-hardened and well-equipped for an Asian country at that time, U.S. had advanced much further in the aspect of military capability than the rest of the world. Lessons from the war in Vietnam were taken at heart and digital revolution occurred 1980s, and a high-tech American war-machine was the end-result.
No country, other than U.S., was capable of tackling Iraq like that in 1991. In-fact, Russian and Chinese analysts had predicted an estimated 30,000 American casualties during this war (in advance) but they had no idea what U.S. was bringing to the table at that time.
Iraq had committed 50 divisions to the war. It would have thrashed a lesser coalition like GCC left and right. It is often said that Cold War ended with defeat of Saddam Hussein.
Yes, indeed there was huge overreach on my part.
The demography I am addressing has other notions - not quite as well founded on 'ground realities' that you so ably demonstrated in your post. So as they say 'differant horses for diffeant courses' I was following a path that is preferred by this demographic - the favourite being Pak is the strongest military power in the muslim world and if unleashed our Al-Khalid Armoured Divisions would not stop till they reached Marocco and along the way taken a detour to squash that Zionist pest - Israel.
What I am really trying to wake our deluded folk is KSA is just another country that is out to look out for it's interests - the fact that the prophet (pbuh) was born there is entirely incidental to the reality as it exists today. KSA does not in any way confer anything special to Pakistan beyond it's interests and Pakistani's shoul;d not get all misty eyed about this country. They should look at it through the hard, cold prism of self interest. However you know they rarely do this when the name of KSA is brought up.
For example
@Khafee brought up the supposed help KSA gave to Pakistan in 1999. Overlooking the fact that USA has given far more aid, military or otherwise to Pakistan then any other country yet we don't sing songs about USA or our legs don't go gooeey the moment 'America' is mentioned. Indeed on the contrary hostile thoughts pour out.
My friend,
I see your point. However, I had to point out the overreaching aspect in your argument.
Think about it. Iraq had committed 50 divisions (about a million men in total) to the war in 1991 in order to prevent a breakthrough in Kuwait. And that force wasn't amateurish either.
Pakistani military didn't had cruise missiles, stealth aircraft, long-range bombers, aircraft carriers, aircraft with BVR and precision strike capabilities, JSTARS ground activity monitoring system, a huge network of satellites, powerful conventional bombs like Daisy Cutters, Apache gunship helicopters and M1A1 Abrams MBT at its disposal back then. On top of this, Pakistani military was not capable of conducting large-scale military operations during night-time or periods of darkness.
How many divisions do you think Pakistan could commit to that war and how could it shift a huge chunk of its military capability to that region in the first place? Could Pakistan even afford to leave its borders with India and Afghanistan largely unguarded in 1991? Can it even today?
Pakistani military capability is no where close to that of U.S. and geopolitical situations of both are also different. We are not a superpower and neither we are in the position to commit a huge force to a war in some other part of the world without compromising our own defensive posture. Not even close.
Overreaching in arguments do not make them credible. Saudi Arabia had thought through the scenario back then and we cannot fault it for seeking American intervention at that time.
Yes, GCC should have discouraged efforts of Bush administration to invade Iraq in 2003. But they all thought that downfall of Saddam Hussein is good for the entire region. They all miscalculated the magnitude and reach of jihadi mindset in the region.
