Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

could fly through the green world of night-vision goggles, but that picture was often
washed out by too much light. Oil fires, the moon, and any explosion would ruin an
NVG picture for a few seconds.
There was also really no air threat at night. At least not in Iraq. Their MiGs were
doing well to get off the ground during the day, and if they did fly at night, they’d
be completely dependent on ground radar control, which we had targeted and
decimated. Night was also better for escape and evasion. If you ejected, then at
least you weren’t floating down in plain sight of every armed peasant within 50
miles. Tonight, 200 miles deep into enemy territory and trying to attract SAMs, this
was a real concern.
Twelve years earlier, I’d been in these very skies, getting shot at by the same
people. Economics, geopolitics, national defense, revenge . . . you could take your
pick of any number of reasons why I was once again ordered north of the 32nd
Parallel to kill Iraqis. The real reason was that both sides wanted a war.
Saddam Hussein, beset within by rebellious Kurds and increasingly disillusioned
military officers, opted for the time-honored strategy of solving domestic troubles
through an external threat. He figured that if he could provoke the United States
into action, then other Islamic countries would fall in line and fight to throw us out.
This was a predictable and naive approach. But then, Saddam was basically a street
punk who’d risen to power by animal cunning and sheer ruthlessness. As with most
dictators, he lacked a real grasp of the world beyond his own little arena and
mistook his domestic dominance for global significance.
I’d always thought that the First Gulf War must’ve shocked Saddam. He’d been
a U.S. ally during the 1980s. The Reagan White House had even removed Iraq from
the State Sponsors of Terrorism list in 1982 so we could transfer dual-use
technology to Baghdad. “Dual use” means it can be, and usually is, used for
peaceful or military purposes. For instance, the same nuclear reactor that provides
power also generates plutonium as a by-product. Plutonium is fissile and can be
then utilized to produce nuclear weapons. Dual use.
Saddam Hussein had also received agricultural credits, weapons, and
intelligence from America to support his war against Iran. His vicious rise to power
had been generally ignored beyond the Middle East until the shah of Iran fell. The
United States needed a new proxy to counter Soviet-supplied Arab nations, and
Saddam wanted to be the man. He was even made an honorary citizen of Detroit in
1980—not bad for a fatherless thug from an ugly, dusty town in Iraq.