[SteveH]

The final collapse will come when a combination of insurrections, American obliteration of the RG outside B-city to the south, and II MAE liberation of B-city to the north push Saddam deep into his bunkers.

I am somewhat more pessimistic than this. As everyone seems to agree these days, urban warfare is the toughest form. And civilians are concentrated in the urban areas. Therefore Saddam's best defense seems as if it would be to hold onto urban Baghdad at all costs. Counter to this in my estimation is embodied by the expression "we own the night". That would seem to imply that the time needed to control Baghdad would be regulated by the need to hold position without advancing during daylight hours, to minimize troop and civilian casualties. I would think the measure of success would be a comparison with someplace such as Beirut. That is, anything short of total destruction of Baghdad could be viewed as a success, at least by military terms. Not to cast aspersions-- just one line item in the necessary cost of war.

[LS]

I disagree. Someone else posted yesterday that the way to do this is to clear a zone, move the people out, check them thoroughly, then readmit the "free Iraq" loyalists to the cleared zone. At this point you would need the "free Iraq" people close by to help clear people in and out.

But this is the last resort---it's all moot when Saddam, his sons, and one or two of his top thugs are room temperature. You cannot convince me that many of these people will continue fighting for a "regime" that exists only in their minds.