Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
Well the Saddam-into-Saudi-Invasion will always be one of the great what ifs. There is no doubt that by pausing after taking Kuwait was one of the biggest mistakes of the campaign. If he had gone for broke, the most likely result would have been his being able to seize the east coast of Saudi Arabia and even over running some of the smaller Gulf oil states. Strategically, this would have given him control of well over half of the world's known oil reserves, as well as most of the major water distelliation plants in the region. This would have given him a much better chance of keeping his ill-gotten gains. This would also have thrown a major monkey wrench into any operations to through him out.
One of the things that a lot of people forget is that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states provided a lot of POL and purified water to the Allied forces, with most of this capability in Iraqi hands, it would have added much more to an already over-stretched supply line.
So Saddam sweeping into Saudi would have been a nightmare scenario for CENTCOM.
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Yeah as matter of fact, if he would had kept advancing hew would of had gain control of large section of Saudi, most likely any Gulf State who even thought about objecting too loudly, they would be gobbled up too, just like Kuwait.
I still think Moscow, and fear of over-extension, along with the memories of the Irar-Iraq War all played factor on why they stopped where they did. Why else would you allow the opposing force over 6 months to prepared and get it shit together so they can steam roll over you. Due to your waiting for them to steam roll, your army goes from the 5th largest in the world to shadow of itself. Also the agreement that Saddam was able to negotiate for a cease-fire is too much of co-incidents that will probably be debated for years. For most of the people who really know the truth about the top people in the Iraqi Government in 1990-1991 are either dead or if they are lucky enough be alive are in prison.