European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 15, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A lethal but untried in combat Patriot the army s most advanced anti aircraft and anti missile hardware a High tech Mobile ground to air guided weapon system a Here in a Sunset photo at an air base in saudi Arabia As two f-16s Streak past overhead. Doubts Over . Deployment Battlefield arithmetic by John m. Broder los Angeles times n april 1980, nine . Helicopters took off from the aircraft Carrier Nimitz in the red sea on a Mission to Rescue the american hostages in Iran. The Mission planned and rehearsed in excruciating detail seemed fail Safe. But reality was unkind to the . Rescue team. Although the choppers worked Well enough in the United states they  handle conditions in the desert. Two of the helicopters never reached the Remote staging area 200 Miles from Tehran. A third developed Hydraulic problems and could t continue the Mission. The Rescue Effort was called off because there weren to enough remaining choppers to do the Job. The Mission code named desert one ended in disaster when a helicopter and a c-130 transport crashed As the commandos fled the Landing zone killing eight servicemen. Today the failure of desert one stands As testament that the Best Laid Battle plans of policy makers and generals often can go wrong. That lesson looms today in the . Troop deployment in saudi Arabia. The . Contingent includes nearly 200,000 troops and an impressive array of weapons systems m1a1 tanks and multiple rocket launchers cruise missiles and laser guided bombs stealth fighters and radar seeking rockets. But in the remorseless arithmetic of the Battlefield there Are serious questions whether . Forces have enough of what they need a and whether their equipment actually will do what it is assigned to do. To begin with while . Weapons Are technologically advanced analysts fret that commanders May not always have enough reliable weapons to counter iraqis estimated 5,500 Battle tested heavy tanks thousands of artillery tubes and scores of ballistic missiles. Then too the . War party in the desert lacks experience in War. And armies in combat learn quickly that campaigns Seldom go As planned weapons Seldom work As advertised and men rarely perform As trained. Plans go out the window when the first shot is fired Gen. Colin l. Powell chairman of the joint chiefs of staff noted in describing the first hours of even in tested armies things go wrong when combat commences. With an untested army you can count on it. A sen. John Mccain the Panama operation last Winter. Quot even in tested armies things go wrong when combat commences Quot said sen. John Mccain r-ariz., a former Navy Pilot shot Down Over North Vietnam in 1967. A with an untested army you can count on it.�?�. There Are these anomalies a if shooting starts in saudi Arabia the army will rely heavily on the tank killing capabilities of the Apache helicopter the newest and most lethal chopper in the . Inventory. But the Apache has proven to be a highly temperamental Bird failing Many of the army s own standards for reliability. The army expects to Fly the Complex helicopter four hours a Day in combat. But under the far less rigorous conditions of peacetime training apaches break Down and require major maintenance every 2vz hours according to a congressional report released Early in october. At any Given time Only half of the army s Apache Fleet is capable of carrying out its Job far below the army a 70 percent Quot Mission capable goal Congress general accounting office found. In what could stand As a Stark warning to . Commanders in saudi Arabia the Gao wrote a Given that the Apache has not been Able to attain availability goals in peacetime despite favourable conditions it is questionable whether it can meet the far More strenuous demands of High intensity  a even in a relatively benign training environment some of americans most advanced weapons a including the m1a1 tank and the Apache fail with alarming frequency. The m1a1 tank flagship of . Armor and a mainstay of the desert deployment Breaks Down during exercises after an average of Only 152 Miles. The tank experiences some system failure a electronic or mechanical a every 21 minutes. The army a standards Are 320 Miles and 101 minutes Between failure. A High technology systems such As the Navy s Aegis class guided missile Cruiser and the f-117 stealth fighter have sometimes proven too Complex for their human operators in the real world of combat. 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Ii in computer simulations editions at Nellis fab on a n the Guys had a Good e Factor in a real War is very it also dramatized the ing Between civilian and Een Friendly and hostile o dozen Allied armies on against Iraq and with on in use by both sides Pic error on the Battlefield id. As also deployed a variety ver been tested in combat onic warfare systems and de anti aircraft and anti riot surface to air works As Well in saudi White Sands missile Range ave been deployed that it their ability to defend luding oilfields air bases to. Orist Karl Clausewitz called Quot friction a the tendency in possible to go awry commanders have a More it etude that their men and ail against the forces of iraqi Sein. Is come across that Border m completely confident that Utt Quot says . Mideast Man Schwarzkopf emulate that the iraqi air an be crushed in a matter s officer recently promised iolent five minutes they Pons the vast majority of have never experienced experiences from the sue Mission in 1980 to then perfect Panama invasion provide a sobering is that War is inherently an e. Lag and technology do not Ess As the United states Vietnam. Tidence in the ability of our Eil militarily i Don t believe it envision a said Mccain. Quot i is to be some Tidence because  a w princely background briefings desert dynasty by Joseph Albright Cox news service with the night Breeze fluttering the tent flaps a princely Quot source sat Cross legged on an Oriental carpet spread in the Middle of the desert at Narjan saudi Arabia and began discoursing on the risks of elective democracy. The 5,000 members of the ruling Al Saud family Are trying their Best to teach Western journalists something about How the dynasty dispenses its Brand of Benevolence. Taking a Leaf from the Washington style Book of spin doctoring saudi princes Are holding a a background briefings every week or so. None has been As candid As the Moonlit backgrounder at the desert Encampment of the California educated Prince who wants to be called Quot a saudi  in Between Bon Mots about the Plo s Yasser Arafat and the american arms sales policy the Quot source Quot also spoke of the relative merits of Coffee. After directing the thermos bearing pakistani servant to pour More Coffee for the dozen Cross legged journalists he asked a female reporter whether the Strong Black brew tasted More like the Coffee he used to drink in Phoenix ariz., or what is served in los Angeles. Halfway into this taste tease he sprang a Surprise it was saudi grown Coffee from this comparatively Lush southwestern province next to the Yemen Border. But it was time to get serious. A defense ministry plane was waiting to Fly the journalists Back across the country to their hotels. It was time to Start the lesson. Quot in my opinion Quot the source said a to have democracy in the Middle East is opening the Way to anarchy. In the West if a party loses an election they will take it in a Sportive Way. But in the Middle East this does no to happen. Look what happened in Syria a it went to army  one thing westerners should realize the source said is that Quot pure Quot elections wont bring to Power the same educated elite of saudi princes and technocrats that Are now running things. Quot you wont get University people Quot the source said. Quot you get some tribal leaders and Many  someone got the Quot source Quot off on the subject of the leaders of other Arab countries. Quot Israel has profited throughout history through the mistakes committed by Arab leaders Quot he said. Quot remember it was president Nasser of Egypt who was responsible for Israel s expansion in 1967. Frankly its in the interests of Israel to have some rulers like president Nasser and Qadhafi and certainly Saddam  Quot what the israelis done to want is Arab leaders who Are quiet responsible and want to have fruitful relations with the West. They hate the palestinian intelligentsia. In their hearts they love to have someone like Arafat because he is making an unappealing Case for the palestinians in Many parts of the  As for the United states the Quot source Quot was gracious in thanking the Bush administration for sending troops. At the same time he was fuming at the news that Congress is resisting Bush administration plans to sell advanced weapons to saudi Arabia. Quot believe me we Hope that one Day there will be a country with More sophisticated weapons than the ., so we could buy from them Quot said the Quot source Quot after decrying what he called Quot the Israel lobby Quot in Congress. Monarchy works so Well that democracy would Only foul things up that was the message conveyed by three princely background briefer in two weeks. These saudis believe that theirs is an Ideal system because it allows every citizen to take his complaints directly to their rulers. They say they Don t need any written Constitution because they live by the Laws of god As Laid out in islam a holy Koran. That a the Way it has been since a tall Warrior named Ibn Saud United the squabbling tribes of Arabia in the first third of this Century to form what May be the Only nation in the world named after the founders family. Ibn Saud created saudi Arabia by taming most of the 100 or More rival tribes spread across the arabian Peninsula. He did so by being fiercer More zealous about islam and smarter in arranging tribal alliances. And he cemented his hold by marrying and having children with at least 22 daughters of tribal notables from across Arabia. Those who resisted his marital diplomacy Ibn Saud conquered by sending his ruthless bedouin warriors who Laid waste in the name of a puritanical form islam called Wahhab ism. Ibn Saud assumed the status of a King in 1932 of one of the poorest least developed countries in the world. Six years later assassinated in 1975 by a Nephew from a bypassed Branch of the family. The Sud Airis and the sons of the late King Khaled now control most of the Power positions in the kingdom. Significantly for the Long run these two branches have won consent from the rest of the family for putting their own sons at the head of the line for the most important Security intelligence and military positions. But the next in line to be King Crown Prince Abdullah 67, the 13th son of Ibn Saud is not part of either of these ruling branches. Though Abdullah is commander of the saudi National guard none of his four children has been Given a decision making Job on the National level. Acting like an american vice president Abdullah has remained far in the background in the Iraq crisis. Meanwhile the Sud Airis and the sons of Khaled have taken charge. The a saudi source did no to speak of this kind of internal business. Nor did he address the question that puzzles audiologists when it comes time for Prince Abdullah to become King How will that change the country s orientation not to worry was the message from the Quot source Quot the saudis have their own Brand of internal consensus building. When the time comes the family will know Best. Quot you know who will be the King from childhood Quot he said. Quot he would be trained he would be judged by his princely Peers. If he is not found to be the most capable he would not succeed to the monarchy. If he does become King nobody would deny his right to  the founder King Ibn Saud who created saudia Arabia at left with president Roosevelt in 1945 right saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz. Standard Oil of California found the first saudi Gusher. Ibn Saud did t live Long enough to see saudi Arabia get Rich. But he did seed a dynasty to share the wealth he could see coming. By the time he died in 1953, he had sired at least 45 sons. In a sense saudi Arabia is now a family business partnership run by Ibn Saud s 30-Odd surviving sons now mainly in their 50s and 60s, As Well As their up and coming male children. By unspoken family consensus two branches of the extended family Are considered the Ablest in governmental affairs and they control most of the levers of Power. One of these groups is the Sunairi clan a the descendants of Ibn Saud and one of his favorite wives Hassa Bint Ahmed Al Sunairi. The other inner elite Are the Al Feisal. They Are the sons of the late King Feisal who ruled from 1964 until he was 5,1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 15