Iraq part II

[Mantis]

It has begun, AA fire reported from Baghdad.

I've started this thread to record initial impressions after the news begins to trickle in.

A quick prayer for those on both sides: May this be brief, and take as low a toll in life as is possible, given the circumstances. Also, let's have our fearless leader brought back to us safely!

God be with you, Don!

[Tzar]

Indeed.

I think the mood of everybody is quite sober at this moment. I am very sober.

Let's hope it will be quick and that this regime will crumble very fast.

I don't think we can realistically expect serious resistance in the southern portion of Iraq.

The moment of truth will probably come in a couple of days, when American forces will be closing in on Bagdad. This is when we will see if the regime will give a fight or not.

[Cheetah772]

Hello,

I honestly think the US launched a couple of missiles just to frighten Iraq of what will come soon if the Iraqi forces don't surrender now...a sort of warning shot or something akin to it...

Pretty soon, I think Thursday night will be the biggest aerial bombardment of early 21st century....

Dan

[Tzar]

Originally posted by Cheetah772


Pretty soon, I think Thursday night will be the biggest aerial bombardment of early 21st century....

Dan

Agreed. The president said tonight that "this won't be a campaign of half-measures..."

Whatever that means, if I would be an Iraqi general, I would be damned worried. And if I would be an Iraqi soldier, I would just be frightened to death and hope my general has decided to surrender...

[Deltapooh]

Bush decided to attack an target of opportunity, likely produced by intelligence information. If it didn't kill the anybody important, the attack, if accurate, will break-up the Iraqi leadership. This will mean a greater reliance on vulnerable lines of communication which we can attack to decapitate the enemy.

However, we are at war, and must move fast. I really would like to see us step up our attacks and take key terrain. God forbid he launches a biological or chemical armed SCUD at Israel.

Either way, the fight is on now. We should rally behind our troops and pray for a speedy end to what I fear will be a painful conflict.

[Tzar]

It seems to me that the "weird" American strategy of dropping a few bombs last night and then calling the air strikes off is probably a try to provoke a coup d'Etat against Saddam. That's why they tried to kill Saddam with a few surgical air strikes and then stopped to leave some time to any Iraqi generals to try something against Saddam and take control. Notice that although U.S. took control of radio airwaves, they did not struck TV stations and did not scramble the TV signals of Iraqi official TV. That's because the rebels would need a means of communication to announce any potential coup d'Etat so you don't want at first to destroy all means of communication available to them. I suppose the White House is giving 24 hours for the rebels to try to set something up. If that does not work, the all-out and massive offensive everybody is expecting will be unleashed tonight.

I am not sure the strategy of the coup d'Etat can work, but if it ever does, that would be a master strike by Washington. Imagine: Saddam's regime is toppled by the Iraqis themselves. What a shock it would be to all opponents of the U.S. to see Americans showing so much restraint and letting a chance to the Iraqis to settle their own problems together. Mind you, even in a coup d'Etat, I would expect to see American troops enter Iraq "at the request" of the new leaders to help them crush Saddam's Republican Guard which will most probably try to resist the coup. Still, this could probably reduce by a lot the probability of a difficult war with many casualties. This would be a great strategy.