Audio By Carbonatix
After four weeks of Operation Desert Storm, American airplanes have made more than 50,000 sorties over Kuwait and Iraq and have dropped more ordnance than was used against Japan in all of World War II.
Although Pentagon spokespersons say “smart bombs” can make surgical strikes against military targets–with sufficient accuracy to distinguish between the doors of the men’s and ladies’ rooms–they reluctantly admit that “collateral damage” can occur in the assaults against air bases, power plants and communications centers.
Defense analysts estimate the overall Iraqi death toll could now exceed 10,000. Photographs from Baghdad show city streets reduced to rubble.
One assessment of what happens during the kind of saturation bombing Baghdad has experienced comes from retired Admiral Eugene Carroll, deputy director of the Center for Defense Information. He says, “B-52 bombing from 30,000 to 40,000 feet is very accurate. They hit the ground every time.” The following map suggests what would happen if the very same forces were loosed on another heavily populated desert city of about the size of Baghdad–Phoenix.
