1st Marine Divison Follows US Army 3rd Infantry Up Euphrates [100 mi. from Baghdad]

STRATFOR.com 'Iraq War Room' ^ | March 23, 2003 | situation report staff

[ewing]

This [move] sugests CENTCOM has abandoned an advance up the Tigris River...

[ewing]

Looks like we have got a convoy up there

[demlosers]

Al Kut is about 100 miles from Bahgdad.

[Admin Moderator]

Please Quit spamming threads.

[demlosers]

DON'T WATCH THE OSCARS.

Never crossed my mind...

[ewing]

Wasnt the 3rd Infantry taking a rest after 40 hours straight on the road?

[vbmoneyspender]

3rd Infantry has already cleared the way. Why fight new people when the point is to get to Baghdad?

[ambrose]

Bump!

[demlosers]

Yeah, I read somewhere they were taking rests. They'll need it.

[ewing]

Or they could be resting to join with 1st Marines since they do have the option of trading off drivers while one sleeps

[netmilsmom]

Please stop putting this on every thread. We agree and get the point.

[WarSlut]

DON'T WATCH THE OSCARS.

You couldn't pay me enough to watch that garbage.

[ewing]

Good point, Im amazed those guys have enough room to sleep comfortably in vehicle but it appears to be working!

[denydenydeny]

The Iraqi units left in Basra and other cities are equivalent to those Japanese stuck on islands bypassed by the American thrust toward Japan.

This is a lightning war, and we are not stopping to pacify every single village in Iraq.

[ewing]

Yep, constant motion. (except for the last 20 miles or so in the Baghdad suburbs)

[demlosers]

I did some quick calculations: they have traveled about 220 - 250 miles in 3 days without little sleep.

[xkaydet65]

I don't believe we have enough ground forces to sustain a two pronged advance. Both prongs would be unable to support the other or exploit a success. Ralph Peters has repeatedly written that the one area he feels Rumsfeld is plainly wrong is in his failure to recognize the need for ground troops well armed and equipped.We're now invading a country with a degraded, though dangerous, military with four divisions. Two of them essentially light infantry. I do not think you can advance at high speed and fully protect your line of supply in a nation as large as Iraq with four divisions. When we went in in '91 we attacked with three corps, each with three or four divisions.

We'd best get 4ID there ASAP and if any of the Stryker Brigades are deployable we should consider doing so. We need boots on the ground.

[ewing]

Reuters said US troops were massing in the North.

[ewing]

The networks were saying 260 miles in 40 hours (with tanks)..incredible

[crazykatz]

The 82nd Airborne is not yet in the game!! ThEY ARE HELD IN RESERVE!!

I almost pity the Iraqis they encounter when they go in!!