America’s leaders, who anticipated that Operation Iraqi Freedom would end Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime, wanted to leverage technological advances to wage a ‘light-footprint’ ground war. This expectation obliged air, land, and naval planners to balance their strategic and tactical targeting options and to concentrate their activities on tactical support to ground forces, delivered at a speed designed to undermine the ability of the Iraqi forces to offer a coherent defence. The air campaign plan that emerged has often been misunderstood and misinterpreted as a blunt instrument, but it was actually underpinned by the desire to minimise civilian casualties.

中文翻译：

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2003 年 3 月 19 日至 5 月 2 日伊拉克自由行动空袭的指导、规划和实施

美国领导人预计伊拉克自由行动将结束萨达姆侯赛因的复兴党政权，希望利用技术进步发动一场“轻足迹”地面战争。这种期望迫使空中、陆地和海军规划人员平衡他们的战略和战术目标选择，并将他们的活动集中在对地面部队的战术支持上，其交付速度旨在削弱伊拉克部队提供连贯防御的能力。出现的空袭计划经常被误解和误解为生硬的工具，但它实际上是由希望最大限度地减少平民伤亡所支撑的。