Talents

Usage examples of capabilities.

Since then, defectors have revealed that Saddam had concealed quite a bit more than even the inspectors realized and that soon after ousting them he resumed his WMD programs to regain and surpass the capabilities he had amassed before the Gulf War.

We kept raising Saddam's increasing military capabilities, his bellicose rhetoric, and his pursuit of all manner of weapons of mass destruction, and the State Department in particular kept accusing us of exaggerating the threat.

Given Saddam's propensity to miscalculate, his penchant for aggression, and his willingness to absorb horrific punishment, it would be a terrible mistake for the United States to allow him to acquire such capabilities and risk war with a nuclear-armed Iraq.

A government that cared about its people and placed the well-being of its citizens first, one that was less obsessed with its military capabilities and preserving the power and perks of a small number, might have handled the crisis differently.

Finally, Iraq is working to rebuild the terrorism capabilities it let atrophy in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Saddam is working assiduously to rebuild and even enhance his military capabilities and has been willing to cripple Iraq's economy and allow large numbers of Iraqi people to die to do so.

Even in their current weakened state, Iraq's capabilities would pose a significant threat to regional stability if the United States were ever to pull its forces out of the region.

But in truth, it is the combination of Saddam's intentions and his ceaseless efforts to enhance Iraqi capabilities that is most frightening.

CONVENTIONAL MILITARY FORCES Understanding Iraq's conventional military capabilities is a bit complicated.

By 1990, Iraq's military had developed a range of limited capabilities that made it a formidable force by regional standards, though still very poor by first-world standards.

Iraq's soldiery has generally lacked the technical skills to employ all of the capabilities of their weaponry, and their maintenance practices are generally abysmal.

In the abstract, the Iraqi Air Force still retains the capabilities to mount a modest air campaign in support of an Iraqi ground offensive against one of its neighbors.

But so far, this has not been a very significant amount, certainly not enough to compensate for the continued erosion of Iraq's training, leadership, combat experience, and logistical capabilities along with the growing obsolescence of its equipment.

The one way Iraq could make significant gains to its conventional military capabilities in the short run would be by acquiring large numbers of advanced standoff attack systems.

Especially if Iraq's logistical capabilities were revived by this time, such circumstances would probably allow the Republican Guard and several of the regular army's heavy divisions to invade and defeat the Kuwaiti, Saudi, and possibly even Jordanian or Syrian militaries.