Iraqi strategy, the Limbaugh hypothesis

Great Debates
61

I think elucidator just knocked that one out of the park. Thanks a lot, 'luce, you just bought me a sunrise.

It makes perfect sense. Hussein really does seem to have an affinity for Stalin, right down to that wolly worm under his nose. He’s got his Moscow, he’s got the heathens at the gates, and he only needs, what, maybe six weeks of delay before summer heat really kicks in? That has to invite one of either two options–the full pull very soon, or wait until October.

Obviously, the former is better than the latter, both politically and militarily. In another thread, Truth Seeker suggested an interesting three-dimensional option which would be daring and disrupting–an airmobile incursion into Baghdad itself. I would go one step further and suggest a series of “island” insertions into the city–maybe even on prepared positions like those of the palaces we’ve just reduced to excellent cover. Triple-A suppression would be a bear, but possibly manageable thanks to our satellite and remotely piloted vehicle information.

I could see an attack helicopter AAA suppression mission clearing a series of pathways into strategic points within the city, then dumping many, many sticks of Rangers and probably others at those points. Use them to interdict the main pathways that armor might use to confront them, and keep them safe with 24-7 overhead air cover. Load them up with extra raiding parties to occasionally make contact with and to support one another and take out local enemy command and control centers. Cut up the whole damned place like a cheese-cuber so that no Iraqi units can safely make contact with one another, and relieve the islands sequentially.

The only problem is the Iraqis seem to have anticipated this. Those giant oil fires within the city don’t do jack against our GPS-guided JDAMs, but it sure would suck to be there defending contested rubble on the ground without being able to see what’s arrayed against you. And another sandstorm? The Rangers are fux0red. Supply would be a serious problem–one thing we learned is that Blackhawks aren’t good in urban environments. Little Bird choppers probably can’t carry enough to keep everyone supplied with ammo, much less such ancillary luxuries such as water and food.

Such a situation would also be a red-carpet invitation for those chemical weapons we have yet to find, and that brings up an interesting conundrum–do you bank on what you think is the truth, or the bullshit you just fed the world about Saddam’s WMDs?

I don’t know. It’s audacious, and in a lot of ways it would stack the deck back toward the “urban warfare light” scenario that ElJeffe proposed. I sure wouldn’t want to be one of the lucky guys selected to be there, though. If that’s the level of desperation to which we are willing to resort, well, I’ve already said we shouldn’t be there to begin with, but someone has to win, and it had better be us.

62

London_Calling, I’m not terribly worried about the reports of tired Marines who want to go home. Of course, I have the luxury of actually being at home, so you’ll have to take that into account. Everyone should take that into account–this is an armchair thread about an armchair war that we have the luxury of fighting while having our asses electronically massaged, figuratively or literally, instead of shot off. And personally, I’m jealous of those of you who have ass-massagers.

Seriously, though, I’ve gone through a fair amount of letters and other correspondence from a dozen wars from Scipio Africanus to the Korean War, and one thing which I’ve always noted is how quickly men (and I suppose now, women, but it would be interesting to see otherwise) trained to fight begin to regret their career choice virtually the moment battle is joined. I’ve never been so unfortunate as to have actually seen war, but I know this for sure–it’s terrible, always, all the time. Once you see it, you want out. Most of them do, anyway.

It’s a good thing that our soldiers so quickly realize what currency they’ve been trained to deal in, what with all the de-humanizing training they’re given these days. Some will quit outright and face the consequences; a lot more will simply stop being effective except to save their own asses. I’m reassured in a perverse sort of way–people are still people and people generally don’t like killing one another. But most of them will keep fighting, for a myriad of good reasons and bad.

Those guys and girls out there will be okay, so long as we get them home soon and thinking they’ve done something reasonably good. Here’s to hoping they can do something reasonably good. We’ll likely quit arguing before they quit fighting.

63

As it turned out, the coalition has so far violated pretty much all of Sun Tzu’s principles. I am not saying they are going to lose, but it’s going to be a lot harder than it should.

64

That sounds completely suicidal. Nobody knows what the elite Republican Guards have up their sleeves. It is reported that the Iraqis have used MLRS in a counterattck today for the first time. It is very probable that they have shoulder launch SAMs. Plus the coalition forces have no idea how to get around in Baghdad.

65

Coming from you, Urban Ranger, word is bond!