Talk:Decapitation (military strategy)

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2003 Invasion of Iraq
In the article, it is stated that a decapitation strike was attempted against Saddam Hussein's regime in the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq, but that the strike "did not work". While it wouldn't surprise me to learn that an aspect of the 2003 invasion "did not work," I don't remember hearing anything about this alleged decapitation strike, and I would be interested in learning more details about the operation, its goals, and its outcome. DrDeke 07:48, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I had a similar reaction when I read that part of the article. Without any kind of supporting information, it looks like a non-neutral POV statement to me. I decided to remove the "It did not work" sentence and slightly change the wording for that reason, but would really rather see someone more knowledgable on military issues add some more facts to the section instead.

(30 Oct 2005)


 * The Dora Farms raid was the first operation of the war. It was followed by another highly-publicized strike on a Baghdad restaurant in April:


 * http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040613/news_1n13strikes.html


 * http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/10/news/escape.php 128.36.56.172 08:43, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

1605 Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 could be described as a decapitation strike against the British Government, since it was aimed specifically at killing the King and Parliament. Of course, it failed, but it was intended to bring about major policy change by a change of government. Should this be included as an example of a decapitation strategy by someone other than a nation state?

139.133.7.37 (talk) 00:01, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

American Centralization
I know most of the people who work on these pages especially the military ones, are American in origin, but do we really have to use purely examples pertaining to American foreign and domestic affairs. Come, Lincoln, and operation Valkyrie, we know better, there are literally hundreds of other examples that could have been used. Abattoir666 03:16, 7 August 2014 (EST)


 * Agree, a few examples:


 * The Ottoman capture of Constantinople, 1453 (most of the male nobility and royals either killed in battle or executed afterwards, women and commoner men sold into slavery)


 * The Roman sacking/destruction of Carthage, 146 BC


 * Pizarro's capture, ransom demands and execution of Inca Atahualpa in 1532/33, effectively crippling the centralized Inca empire


 * Saddam Hussein's 1979 coup in Iraq (the 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge), killing many of the top brass of the military and of his own party to ensure his rise to absolute power.


 * The 1973 Chile coup. President Allende and many of his innercircle were killed, or intended to be killed.


 * - and. as already suggested, the 1605 Gunpowder Plot (the intended goal was to wipe out both the king and the parliament, likely also part of the royal family) 83.254.150.43 (talk) 23:55, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Strike not necessarily nuclear
There is nothing specifically nuclear about decapitation strikes. Many examples from the real world and fiction are givne, most do not involve nuclear weapons. Yet the introduction refers only to nuclear decapitation. This is misleading and should be corrected.119.224.13.116 (talk) 05:04, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Undergrad thesis
I found an undergrad thesis on this topic: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1514&context=honorstheses

Prolly not an RS but it may be useful to readers as an external link WhisperToMe (talk) 03:29, 14 July 2020 (UTC)