Before September 2002: Rumsfeld Orders Commanders To Focus Aerial Strikes in Iraq on Military Communications Infrastructure

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld orders commanders to focus US and British aerial strikes in Iraq on the country’s air defense communications centers, command buildings, and fiber-optic links, in order to degrade Iraq’s air defense network. [Washington Post, 12/12/2002; Washington Post, 1/15/2003]