What a surprise: the people who planned and lead the air war in Desert Storm think it went great. Let's do some fun keyword searches in this report, shall we? mitchellaerospacepower.org/single-post/de… #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
The word "mistake" is used sparingly -- once to refer to Saddam Hussein, and the rest mostly to talk about "honest mistakes" that don't get further review #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
No discussion of fratricide. No discussion of the weapons that killed American troops. No discussion of unexploded American ordnance that continue to kill Iraqis and Kuwaitis today #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
Amiriyah not even mentioned by name. Gen. Horner reduces the killing of 400 civilians there to "We had mistakes happen, such as the bombing of a command bunker converted into an air raid shelter, but that was a mistake not a crime" #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
"Chemical Warfare" gets exactly one mention. Nothing about warplanes creating the disaster at Al Muthanna, which the coalition never bothered to clean up during the long occupation just over a decade later, or the U.S. casualties from chem agent there in OIF #gulfwar30
Look for the discussions of "collateral damage." They're pretty telling
This, from Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, offers essentially Curtis LeMay's rationale for dropping more bombs that will kill civilians 
Then there's Dr. Benjamin S. Lambeth
"Stealth" and "precision" get a lot of play, though, mentioned 24 and 26 times respectively. Words like that really play well with focus groups and companies that make planes and weapons
"Vietnam" gets name-checked 50 times, which calls to mind Pres. George H.W. Bush's line after Desert Storm ended: "By God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all" nytimes.com/1991/03/02/wor…
Way to go, @MitchellStudies. You guys really knocked this one out of the park
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