Discussion about Gen.Franks Strategy

[Pongo]

The Turks really really put a wrench in this thing.
The CNN blurb I just heard about a battlion of Apaches wading into a built up area south of Bagdad sounded like black hawk down.
Hard to believe that an apache can take an RPG round in an engine and make it back. Tough birds.

Like I said before.
First likely outcome is US takes the gloves off on colateral damage.
Second is they accept they are embracing a war or attrition although one they have huge advantages in waging.
Third is they re assess any born again muslims in their units.
(preferebly back stateside)

and 400 mile logistics is nothing. Its going to be about 850 miles to set up a base in the north.

[Pongo]

Wow.
Bunch of guys with impressive resumes on the tube now see this issue as well.
Small force to begin with. NO PRESTRIKE SOFTENING OF THE ENEMY. Huge part of US orbat including the most armour heavy unit out of the war for a week or more.

Longbow radar seems to have serios issues with built up areas.
Now they are stalled in the suberbs of Bagdad with 100s of Iraqi tanks and a two day sand storm

Bush has handed Sadam the best possible shot he could have asked for at the US military.

Unbelievable arrogance.
Real patriots blood will spill to make up for Georges grand stratagy and diplomatic skill.

Strike and Awe **** what have we gotten into.

It reminds me of a Clancy book where he inflicts some crippling weakness on the US military like they lose 4 carriers on page one. Just to make the book interesting.

GWB II may have cemented his legacy as a US president.

Reminds me of how my unit won the Presidential Unit Citation at Kapyong Korea. That little blue bar costs some real lives.

[rc51]

me thinks Tommy will turn out to be a better General than General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Me thinks you'r silly!!!

[weazel]

Reuters
Monday, March 24, 2003; 10:17 PM



LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led force in Iraq risks as many as 3,000 casualties in the battle for Baghdad and Washington has underestimated the number of troops needed, a top former commander from the 1991 Gulf War said on Monday.

Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the 24th Infantry Division 12 years ago, said the U.S.-led force faced "a very dicey two to three day battle" as it pushes north toward the Iraqi capital.

"We ought to be able to do it (take Baghdad)," he told the Newsnight Program on Britain's BBC Television late on Monday.

"In the process if they (the Iraqis) actually fight, and that's one of the assumptions, clearly it's going to be brutal, dangerous work and we could take, bluntly, a couple to 3,000 casualties," said McCaffrey who became one of the most senior ranking members of the U.S. military following the 1991 war.

"So if they (the Americans and British) are unwilling to face up to that, we may have a difficult time of it taking down Baghdad and Tikrit up to the north west."

McCaffrey said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had misjudged the nature of the conflict. Asked if Rumsfeld made a mistake by not sending more troops to start the offensive, McCaffrey replied: "Yes, sure. I think everybody told him that."

"I think he thought these were U.S. generals with their feet planted in World War II that didn't understand the new way of warfare," he added.

U.S. forces have advanced more than 200 miles into Iraqi territory since the start of the war and are beginning to confront an elite division of the Republican Guards deployed to defend the capital.

"So it ought to be a very dicey two to three day battle out there." McCaffrey said of the confrontation with the Republican Guards.

He said his personal view was that the invading troops would "take them (the Iraqis) apart."

"But we've never done something like this with this modest a force at such a distance from its bases," he warned.

McCaffrey, a former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces in Latin America, served overseas for 13 years and took part in four combat tours.

He twice received the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest medal for valor in the United States.

[Dead Man Flying]

I sure do love rampant speculation, whether from decorated talking heads who've been out of military life for years or uninformed journalists.

-- Todd/Leviathn

[Pongo]

My big concerns, Infantry heavy forces attacking against a concentrated force of armour that can remain largly hidden till the mother of all sand storms removes the US long range missle advantage, the air advantage and the Thermal optics advantages in one fell swoop. These changes dont make the Iraqs equal to the US forces. But they even the odds along way from the big advantage the US units hold with those in place.

[Martlet]

They tried that last night.  B52's cleaned them up.