Norman Schwarzkopf dies at 78

[Jamie_B]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/27/16197379-desert-storm-commander-norman-schwarzkopf-dies-at-78?lite

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[color=#333333][font=georgia, serif][size=4]Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, the blunt, bulldog-like commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in the first Persian Gulf War, died Thursday in Florida. He was 78.[/size][/font][/color]

[color=#333333][font=georgia, serif][size=4]Schwarzkopf died after a long illness at his home in Tampa, where he lived in retirement, a senior defense official told NBC News.[/size][/font][/color][color=#333333][font=georgia, serif][size=4]
Schwarzkopf, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran who rose quickly through the Army's ranks during the 1970s and '80s, drew up the initial plans for the successful U.S.-led ejection of Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait, which Iraq invaded in 1990.[/size][/font][/color][color=#333333][font=georgia, serif][size=4]
He then became famous for his inventive language during the almost-daily televised briefings he gave reporters as commander of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, invariably clad in desert camouflage, which he is credited with introducing.[/size][/font][/color][color=#333333][font=georgia, serif][size=4]
Schwarzkopf described the key maneuver that led to the end of the ground war, a redeployment of forces into Iraq behind Iraqi lines, with a boxing metaphor: He called it a "left hook." And he memorably dismissed one report he disagreed with as "bovine scatology."[/size][/font][/color]

In his 1992 autobiography, "It Doesn't Take a Hero," Schwarzkopf relates that he meant to send a message in those briefings.
"With those cameras grinding away, I knew I wasn't talking just to friendly audiences, but that Saddam and his bully boys were watching me on CNN in their headquarters," he wrote.
Schwarzkopf wrote that he agreed with President George H.W. Bush's decision not to pursue Saddam all the way to Baghdad. At the February 1991 briefing during which he described the coalition's victorious operations, he made it clear that he could have done so, however, had he been given the order:
"If it had been our intention to take Iraq, if it had been our intention to destroy the country, if it had been our intention to overrun the country, we could have done it unopposed for all intents and purposes from this position at that time."
Schwarzkopf emerged from the war with the nickname "Stormin' Norman" and a career in television, much of it as a military analyst for NBC News.

The decision to go to war to oust Saddam was the defining moment of Bush's presidency. In a statement from Houston, where he is being treated at Methodist Hospital for complications related to bronchitis, Bush called Schwarzkopf "one of the great military leaders of his generation."
"More than that, he was a good and decent man," Bush said.
Colin Powell, who was Schwarzkopf's boss as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Desert Storm, remembered Schwarzkopf on Friday as "a great patriot and a great soldier."
"He was a good friend of mine, a close buddy," Powell said in a statement. " I will miss him."
Schwarzkopf, who had been based in Tampa for many years on the way to leading U.S. Central Command in 1988, was a prominent spokesman for campaigns to promote awareness of prostate cancer, with which he was diagnosed in 1993. He is survived by his wife, Brenda, and their three adult children.


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[|Bunghole|]

Damn. RIP soldier.

[Homer_Rice]

Friend of mine retired as a light bird in Army intelligence and had some interaction with him during the Gulf War. Had nothing but good things to say about Stormin' Norman.

Me, I was out in the streets in oppo to that war. Still, RIP. Which is not what I'll say in a few days when Bush kicks the bucket.

[|Numbers|]

RIP Schwarzkopf. End of a legacy that began with his father (see nationalization of oil in Iran for further information). All human life is sacred, even those we disagree with.