In the TRANSCIPT OF A BRIEF ON THE ARMY AFTER NEXT Maj. Gen. Robert Scales makes some points I hadn't thought about before. In my "Make my day" policy of deterrence I figured that if Saddam had a good understanding of the forces arrayed against him he would not tempt fate. But as MG Scales points out,
If you stay too long, or if you repeat yourself ... the enemy learns to get knowledge from points where there is no knowledge. He maneuvers against the white spaces. Shades of Somalia. If you establish recognizable patterns, even if you maintain that 9-1 technical method superiority in information, over time the enemy learns and he starts to get it.

In other words, if your enemy knows too much about your capabilities he can counter them. Even if those capabilities appear to be overpowering a clever enemy can come up with something to level the playing field if you allow him the time to adjust. Operationally the trick is to paralyse him quickly and not let up until he collapses. By moving his defenses into the cities Saddam is following good doctrine in that city fighting might buy him precious time to adjust and counter whatever we throw at him.

So what does this mean for Make-my-day? Somehow we must keep him uncertain that his countermeasures will be effective. I have to leave that up to the professionals. But if he becomes confident that he can bog down an American counter-attack our deterrence is lost and he may entertain the unthinkable.