US/UK liberate more people, more area, faster with fewer casualties than ANY force in history!

Self | 4/4/2003 | Robert Cook

[Robert A Cook PE]

The US/UK forces have liberated more territory and freed more people from terror than ANY army in history!

We are now 14 days after our forces crossed the border, 16 days after the first precision air strike on Hussein's bunker. Now, some 65% of Iraq has been freed from oppression and institutional terror, and only small pockets remain in downtown Baghdad and Basra; plus a few towns in the north. In only two weeks, with a loss of less than 100 Coalition soldiers and 4000 civilian casualties (the Iraq estimate), Bush and the US/UK armies have liberated 100,000 square miles and have virtually destroyed the Iraqi Army, Air Force, Navy, and armored forces as effective fighting units.

Compare this (on-going) victory with two previous campaigns: The blitz across Poland in 1939 and the Battle of France in May 1940.

Poland.

1.8 million German soldiers conquered just over half of Poland in only six weeks (Sept 1 to Oct 6), losing 16,000 killed and some 32,000 wounded. (The Soviet Union waited until Sept 17 to invade the eastern half of Poland, in the end dividing that country in two as they secretly agreed on August 25.)

Poland's cavalry and brave, but under-armed infantry destroyed hundreds times more German Panzers than Iraq's modern armor did to the coalition's M1's and Bradley's! Poland destroyed some 800 of the 2600 panzers attacking it; and shot down 550 German aircraft. Only a handful of US/UK armored vehicles have been lost; and most of those tragically have been from friendly fire. More Allied aircraft have been lost to accidents and friendly fire than from Iraq defenses!

France.

Germany invaded France, Belgium, and Holland on May 10, 1940; France surrendered its northern half six weeks later on June 22. 1.9 million French troops were captured in six weeks, and some 300,000 were killed or missing. 68,000 British; 23,000 Belgium, and 10,000 Dutch soldiers were also lost defending France: killed, captured, or missing. Nobody knows how many civilians were killed: the Nazi bombing of Rotterdam alone is thought to kill some 5,000-8,000 innocent civilians.

27,000 German soldiers were killed in the campaign.

Iraq is a large country compared to these two countries: France at 210,000 square miles is the largest in Europe, Iraq is 171,000 square miles, and Poland has 121,000. (Afghanistan is even larger at 278,000 square miles, but it's not fair to compare Bush's 9 week air and special forces liberation of that country to an armored invasion against dug-in troops.) Further, you should realize that the war is not over, and that more casualties will unfortunately still happen.

But remember that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfield decision to impliment General Frank's warplan resulted in the shortest, most successful campaign to free an oppressed people in history.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Some failure.

What a quagmire.

Please add your corrections, updates, or extensions.

[truth_seeker]

Note: For our Peaceful & Tolerant Muslim Friends

Saddam has killed MORE Muslims, than any other figure in history (muslim or non-muslim)

I have seen this from several sources. Last night an American woman, A. Hassan, author of "American Muslim" made the statement.

She said it would be good if islamist terrorists streamed into Iraq, from other places, so they could be killed.

[Eala]

Thanks for assembling and posting this, Robert!!

[Doctor Stochastic]

The Soviet destruction of the Japanese army in Manchuria at the end of WWII was pretty impressive. They went about 150 km in the mountains against an entrenched Japanese army in about 7 days. Of course, the Japanese army didn't have armor and the Soviets took from Feb 1945 to Aug 1945 to build up their forces.

Two other transfers of troops are impressive; the Romans sent a foot column across North Africa rather rapidly and the Mongols went about 50 miles per day with light horse.

I don't have the references but GOOGLE my be your friend here.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Bumped.