[Joe Bonforte]

The word got around that to fight the Americans was to die quickly.

I sure hope this word gets around the whole Middle East.

[CasearianDaoist]

And they are mostl in their late teens or early twenties. Better than any Harard PhD., IMHO.

[Loyal Buckeye]

I would add another very important factor: The troops were given the authority to do what was necessary to win. The President did not sit in the Oval Office selecting targets.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The word got around that to fight the Americans was to die quickly. Nothing worked against them, and they would keep coming at you and kill you.

Superior training coupled with superior weapons coupled with superior tacts destroyed the Iraqis. This old addage is proven true yet again: "The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle."

[Southack]

Somebody "gets it" around here!

[TEXOKIE]

Testimonial to the troops! We have great tech, but it takes even greater people to use it!

[Political Junkie Too]

I think a telling video was one I saw where an Iraqi tank was hiding a berm on three sides, leaving an escape path behind, with its gun just peeking out over the top, as the missile zeroed in on it from above (thus the pictures). They never saw what hit them.

The thing is, the Iraqi's were doing all the right things. Their mistake, however, was in fighting the tactics of the last war, while the USA was inventing the tactics of the next war.

-PJ

[Bosco]

The full article is a worthwhile read as well.

[Chewbacca]

They forgot to add one other reason.

Many of the Iraqi's wanted to be liberated from Saddam and refused to fight.

[Theo]

"Shock and Awe," it turns out, worked. Despite what "disbelievers" argued....

[Plutarch]

The word got around that to fight the Americans was to die quickly.

Or as it is more commonly phrased:

Mess with the best; Die like the rest.

[colorado tanker]

I would add to this a brilliant plan by Gen. Franks and his staff. I am convinced the Iraqi's expected another 4-6 week preparatory aerial bombardment, as in Gulf War I, which would have given them additional preparation time. Instead, Franks launched the ground attack BEFORE the air attack, judging, correctly, that with the tremendous improvements in precision guided munitions he didn't need the extra time to soften up the Iraqis. They were taken off guard, which may have explained why they hadn't produced an inventory of chemical munitions to distribute to the field commands.

[xp38]

This sounds like the 23 day campaign was a success. I seem to recall at the time the media was saying weather and supply problems and fierce unexpected resistance was creating a quagmire for the good guys. Was the media reporting at variance with the facts?

[Ditter]

Didn't you get sick of hearing from the media that the "ELITE" Republican Guard was going to get the best of our guys? Fat chance!

[warchild9]

Everyone please note that our next REAL opponent, the Chinese, are preparing to meet our modern tactics with satellite-killing technology, and their usual penchant for overwhelming quantities of lower-tech weapons. And they're not coming here; they'll settle for both Koreas, Taiwan, Northern Viet Nam, some of India and Siberia, and every oil field in sight.

[SAMWolf]

A common reaction among the 700 embedded reporters was along the lines of, "these guys are real pros." Yes they were, and that's why Baghdad fell 23 days into the campaign.

God Bless Our Troops!

[Grampa Dave]

To our great warriors! They may just be the best!

"The word got around that to fight the Americans was to die quickly. Nothing worked against them, and they would keep coming at you and kill you."

Add that reality to the reality of the Rat Soddomite being rooted out of his root cellar and getting his medical exam on world wide tv, and the despots around Iraq understand Shock and Awe. A prime example is Krazy Kaddaffi, who ain't dumb enought to be the next guy in our cross hairs.

[AmericanBabe]

If anyone is interested, please check-out this website. There are many Iraqis on there who support what they call the "honest Resistance", - killing our boys!

http://www.4iraqis.com/viewtopic.php?t=4273

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

ping...

[MEG33]

I salute our armed forces and the individual's skill and bravery.