Strategic Air Power in Desert Storm (Studies in Air Power)

This is a study of the strategic air campaign in Desert Storm that is based on the author's academic thesis. It was written in the late 1990s and thus does not reflect the experiences of the Iraq War after 2003. The discussion of the planning of the strategic air campaign is excellent. He covers a lot of the same ground in his subsequent book on John Warden, and of course the essential work on the planning of the Desert Storm air campaign remains Diane Putney's "Airpower Advantage".Perhaps even more useful is the analysis of the Iraqi power structure. The purpose of this analysis was to show why the strategic air campaign failed to decapitate the regime or destabilize it so that Saddam could be overthrown internally. I have not seen anything like that analysis anywhere else. I suspect that nobody in Washington read this analysis before we invaded in 2003, which was too bad, because the planning and execution of "Iraqi Freedom" could certainly have benefited from it.I got this book from a library. I don't think I want to pay the crazy amounts of money they want for it new ($50 to $100 or $200). If you can get it used for under $20, that is probably reasonable in my opinion.

I am researching the Gulf War and this book is a super reference point. It was in excellent condition.