Military Intelligence

We hear so much these days about the power of our combined arms attack. We forget that our tanks are 1970s technology, Certainly the M1 Abrams tank has less of an advantage over the T-72 than the German tanks used in WWII, even the lowly Pz. Kw IV, had over the Sherman, yet the puny Sherman beat the German Tigers, through superior numbers and tactics. The combined arms attack was invented in 1918, and surely even an amateur will realize that the Blitz Krieg combined attack of Stuka bombers and Panzers is exactly the combination we used in this war.

No, the difference in 2003 war versus 1940 war is battlefield intelligence. While the credulous press embeds keep referring to our Predator drones, those in the know will point to the fact that our artillery commanders have access to their own battlefield drones. Sattelite and U2 photography, combined with JStars radar planes alerted our airmen to armored targets before they arrived on scene. The difference between the wars is in the intelligence, almost entirely. Can you imagine a Battle of the Bulge today? Armored divisions could not sneak through a forest with these intel assets at work.

Before anyone credits our supposed "gee whiz" infantry weapons, credit military intelligence and battlefield awareness. I know that military intelligence is supposed to be an oxymoron, but not any more.