Karbala Gap Holds The Key To Allies' March On Capital

Independent (UK) ^ | 3-29-2003 | John Lichfield

[Mr. Lucky]

I can't help it, but an article about the RAF attacking enemy tank formations conjurs up the image of Supermarine Spitfires diving out of a cloudbank, machineguns blasting. Together, we kicked ass in that war (over German and French objection) too,

[ez]

What would Sun-Tsu do? Feign a thrust through the Karbala Gap and while their forces are responding, scoot around the Lake. Then take the bridge at Al Fallujah and straight in to Baghdad.

[oceanview]

yes, this is right. Karbala is a ruse designed to hold the RGs, while bombing along their rear keeps them from retreating into baghdad. the real attack will come from the west.

[RightWhale]

Kabballa Gap is also what Saddam refers to in his Stalingrad plans.

[Paraclete]

Senior US commanders in the field have also told American correspondents that the Karbala Gap – described as "the last stepping-stone to Baghdad" – would be their next objective. Military experts counselled scepticism, warning that the military briefings may be intended to confuse the Iraqis and that the first blow could fall elsewhere.

Do you suppose a huge ruse is going on . . . Marines hit from the Southeast (where they're supposedly bogged down)?

[John H K]

Spitfires were rarely used for ground attack; it was Hurricanes, and then Typhoons.

[colorado tanker]

Interesting article, but I'd be alert for misinformation and strategery.

[TheLooseThread]

To anyone who has ever read or studied military battles the outcome is clear.

We have superior firepower.
We have air dominance.
We have mobility.
We can cycle troops to keep them fresh.
We have secure supply lines (despite media myth).

The enemy has inferior weapons
The can not move without being decimated.
Their troops have nowhere to rest.
Their supply lines don't exist.

The saying is that privates talk tactics and generals talk logistics. Any supply trucks reaching the Medina division? Doubt it. Fresh water? Food?

In WWII, once you surrounded the enemy with ground forces it was over for them. Why? Because they no longer had supply lines.

The media doesn't understand, but the Medina divsion (RG) is surrounded. Our ground forces are part of it. But our air dominance "surrounds" them by not allowing supplies to get through.

Every time you see a media graphic of the Medina RG division sw of baghdad, view it as if it were surrounded by coalition forces. It is over for them already.

[jwalsh07]

At least one American was reported killed in fighting and two marines died after they were run over by one of their own vehicles as they slept.

Ah crap. God bless'em. I know it happens in training too, it's just such a damn waste.

[jwalsh07]

Thought you might find this of interest.

[wretchard]

"The Marines are engaged in "blue-collar warfare," said Lieutenant Colonel BP McCoy, commanding officer of the Marine 3rd Battery, 4th Regiment. "There's no magic solution to it. It is just the hard-grinding work of patrols."

No one in the press is asking where the Marines are going. Their assumption is that the Marines are just walking around in circles in an appropriately journalistic manner. And just where are they going? To Al Kut on the Tigris, of course, to establish a Euphrates-Tigris line that will cut Mesopotamia in two. It is the killer blow in strategic terms. Historically, the US Army always cuts enemy countries in two before closing on their city redoubts.

The best predictor of what will happen at Baghdad is what is happening in Basra. Basra is a major city of a million people. Look at Basra and see how Tommy Franks reduces a city. You can predict US casualties in Baghdad by scaling up British casualties at Basra. And does anyone doubt that Basra will fall? The force ratios are interesting, too. The Brits are reducing Basra with a single mech infantry brigade. The US has two divisions in the Baghdad area and can bring in another soon.

The real thing to watch is the development of the logistical bases. War, at the strategic level, is all logistics. The present force of 60,000 men needs 4,500 tons a day in consumables. The 4 ID will add a burden of 2,000 per day. And we're not talking about feeding the civilians yet. That's why the seizures of H2, H3, Talil, Basur and Umm Qasar (to mention only the ones I know about) were the decisive battles of the war. And, get this, they were planned long before the press started raising objections about "underrating" the Iraqi enemy.

[Mike Darancette]

a strip of land 25 miles wide (16km)

Is it 25 miles wide or 16 KM (10 miles) wide?

I sure wish we had a Northern Front accross the river.

[colorado tanker]

Very interesting. Is there a link to that map? It's more detailed than most I've seen.

[jwalsh07]

Start Here, Some Good Stuff

[uncbob]

I thinks it was Napoleon who said" Before a battle is even begun the logisticians have decided its outcome"

[Dead Dog]

Sun Tsu's ghost is riding with the II MEU.

[edwin hubble]

"Do you suppose a huge ruse is going on . . . Marines hit from the Southeast (where they're supposedly bogged down)?"

Or the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force from the West (Jordan). Note that there aren't embedded troops in the North or West. Only the South (and Southeast).

[edwin hubble]

correction:
Note that there aren't embedded REPORTERS in the North or West.

[Diddley]

To anyone who has ever read or studied military battles the outcome is clear. . . . . . .

Very good information.