The US Army general who rose to fame during Gulf War I passed away today at the age of 78.  :\'(

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-retired-gen-norman-schwarzkopf-dies-002111413--politics.html

Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, Daniel Inouye, and now Stormin' Norman? Gad, 2012 was not a good year for American heroes. Whatever came after in the gulf, It was Big George and Norman who fired the first shots against Saddam, even if George W. and a new generation of U.S. soldiers finished the job. At least he and those great American warriors can have a good laugh in Heaven that he outlived Insane Hussein!
I have to know where he will be buried. I hope in Arlington, so I can lay flowers on his grave next time I am in Washington. Big George joked today to put away the harps(he refuses to succumb to bronchitis), but I am sure that he now wants to call for a 21-gun salute. RIP, Norman. The Storm is over.

Your Pal,
Doc
:\'(

Sad!  :\'(  :\'(  :\'(

R.I.P. General Schwarzkopf

General Schwarzkopf was a brilliant military commander and a great American.

Thank you for your service, and may you rest in peace.  :(

RIP Stormin Norman.  :\'(

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away...

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6770/75432.jpg

...like a boss.

Could have taken Baghdad, didn't get orders to, so he stopped.  Why risk troops when the military objective has already been achieved?

"But I think, more importantly, there's a strategic consideration. Saddam Hussein portrayed that war from the very beginning as "This is not a war against Iraqi aggression against Kuwait. This is the Western colonial lackey friends of Israel coming in to destroy the only nation that dare stand up to Israel, that is Iraq Had we proceeded to go on into Iraq and take all of Iraq, I think that you would have millions of people in that part of the world who would say Saddam was right, that that was the objective. Instead we went in, we did what the United Nations mandate asked us to do and we left and we didn't ask for anything. We didn't leave permanent military forces over there, we didn't demand territory, we didn't demand bases, and the Arabs became convinced that the West was willing to deal with them evenhandedly which has led directly, in my mind, to the progress that's going on at the peace table an.. between Israel and the Arabs and the Palestinians. It never would have happened if Desert Storm hadn't occurred. So the bottom line, as far as I'm concerned, is that sure, emotionally I would have loved to have gone to Baghdad and grabbed Saddam Hussein, but this was not an emotional decision, it was a strategic decision, and strategically we were smart enough to win the war and win the peace."
  - Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, PBS interview: Oral Histories of Gulf War I. (ridiculously long interview, but worth reading in its entirety)

Not only did he by all accounts always put the welfare of his troops first, he was a pretty clever guy, too.

I remember Gulf War I.  Schwartzkopf was our Eisenhower.  He was our man in the sand!
:\'(