via Breaking Defense.
There’s also the grim calculus of risk. Welsh — a former Warthog pilot and guy who studied ground tactics at the Army’s Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth – said destroying the mass of an enemy’s air force (the second echelon, known to most as the reserve) saves the most lives on the ground and at sea, although he also said that close air support (the A-10′s speciality) is very important.Read the entire article, but be advised.
THIS IS WHAT I HATE ABOUT AIR POWER CENTRIC THINKERS.
Its as if the rules of air warfare trump everything. What idiot thinks that air power is supreme? Does the Taliban have an Air Force? Did the Viet Cong and the N. Vietnamese ever have control of the skies?
Quite honestly the air power mafia is constantly reliving WW2. They have images of fighter sweeps clearing the skies and then taking credit for winning the war instead of realizing that ground combat is a different, nasty and much more vicious type of warfare than the fly boys experience.
The ARROGANCE of this statement...."destroying the mass of an enemy's air force saves the most lives on the ground"... is breathtaking.
