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Old 01-11-2019, 10:39 AM   #96
Michele
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
Default Re: Comment my megacorporation

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Infantry is not key to winning wars at TL8. Air superiority is key to winning wars at TL8. You can see that it the last seventy years of US military conflicts. In conflicts where the USA attempted to control territory with infantry (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.), they lost or stalemated after years of being bogged down (the US is still in South Korea. In conflicts where the USA used air superiority to cause the submission of their enemies (the First Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, etc.), the US was able to declare victory and pretty much handed things over to the UN to clean up.
The real estate consideration above still holds true.

The First Gulf War did use ground troops. It was fortunate that the important real estate could be traveled through and fought over with armored vehicles, but if the Iraqis had decided to resist in Kuwait City, infantry would have been necessary. That is, unless one considers as a victory handing back to the Kuwaitis a pile of air-force-made rubble. As to Baghdad, most pointedly the First Gulf War did not go there.

In the Serbian War, the NATO/OTAN forces weren't interested in taking the Serbian real estate, and the Serbians knew that very well. The air forces could bomb every last powerhouse and electric power plant and dam in the country, sending it back to windmills and oil lamps, since the bombing countries did not want to take those plants, or the country itself, for themselves. The Serbians understood the obvious thing to do.
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Michele Armellini
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