Norman Schwarzkopf
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General Norman Schwarzkopf was the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) during the 1991 Gulf War. Per John Kiriakou, Schwarzkopf executed "visionary leadership" in the prosecution of the war against Saddam Hussein.

The flanking maneuver

Kiriakou describes the operation as "a very simple and very elementary, like, first-step play, flanking move." The Iraqis had fortified the Kuwait,Saudi border. The U.S. sent "a couple of tanks" and fought what became known as the Battle of Khafji as a diversion. The main force was routed "around into Saudi Arabia, up and around into Iraq," and struck the Iraqis from the north. As Iraqi forces tried to flee Kuwait on the Iraq,Kuwait highway, the Highway of Death, "we're hitting them from the south from Khafji, and we're hitting them from the north from Iraq."

Per Kiriakou: "We killed everybody. Everybody. 200,000 soldiers in their military, wiped them out." The only Iraqi forces Saddam kept in reserve were the Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard, the latter staffed by Saddam's own family as his final ring of security.

See also

- Saddam Hussein
- John Kiriakou
