28 March 2003
US WarPlan on schedule
- Hype Media Misleads America
- Airpower prepping battlefield
- Humanitarian Aid Arrives
- Kurd Victories in the North
- Special Forces take western desert
As expected, the media is turning the pause after the fastest advance in military history into US forces being "stalled." These reporters are trying to make news - not report news. [see WarReport 27 March]
| New York Times: "March to Baghdad Slowed, U.S. Forces Weigh Strategies" "Constant Attacks Hold Up Allied Forces" "A Gulf Commander Sees a Longer Road" |
Washington Post: "General Sees Longer War" |
Newsweek "Not What America Expected" "Dickey: How the U.S. Misjudged Iraq" |
The media goes on to report planned deployment of follow on troops as a chaotic scramble to get reinforcements to besieged US forces in Iraq. Here are the facts:
On March 27 the 4th ID, 1st Armored and 1st Cavalry received immediate deployment orders.
These units had been mobilized for this action since January in the case of the 4th and the first week of March in the case of the 1st Armored and 1st Cavalry. (The war began March 19th and Turkey was given up as a staging area the first week of March.) Read on. These troops have been in the pipeline - that is planned for just this action - well before this moment.
When asked today why it was so important to get to Baghdad so quickly, General Meyers (Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff) said, "Because we could."
The Republican Guard has been found and fixed.
Here are the reports of the follow on troops' initial deployment orders:
The 4th Infantry Division received orders to Iraq January 21, 2003 [link]
Jan 2003
U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division Gets Deployment Orders
WASHINGTON: A U.S. Army Division with a total of 37,000 soldiers has received its orders to deploy to the Persian Gulf. The 4th Infantry Division, equipped with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery and other weaponry designed to defeat armored forces is known as Task Force Ironhorse. The Army announced on Monday that the task force has been ordered to "reposition" to the Central Command area that covers the Persian Gulf, where tens of thousands of other American forces are assembling in preparation for possible war against Iraq.
The 4th Infantry Division is considered the Army's most lethal, modern, and deployable heavy division, with the most sophisticated information- gathering and command and control equipment. In addition to about 12,500 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, nearly 4,000 soldiers from the division's 3rd Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado, and more than 20,000 troops for 10 other installations comprise the task force...
The 1st Infantry received its mobilization orders March 3, 2003. [link]
1st AD deploys to Gulf
The 1st Armored Division received mobilization orders March 3, accelerating the flow of U.S. Army units from across the 104th Area Support Group toward an increasingly likely war with Iraq.
The orders dispatched 1st AD to deploy many of its 13,000 soldiers to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in support of the global war on terrorism and to prepare for future contingencies as directed. Deploying units come from every community across the 104th ASG. They include the 1st Brigade in Friedberg, the 2nd Brigade in Baumholder, the 4th Brigade in Hanau, Division Artillery in Baumholder, Division Engineer Brigade in Giessen, the Division Support Command in Wiesbaden and a variety of air defense, military intelligence, aviation support and Military Police units from Wackernheim and Wiesbaden.
(Melody Joy Fields and the 1st Armored Division Public Affairs Office contributed to this story.)
1st Cavalry received deployment orders March 3, 2003: [link]
Army's 1st Cavalry Division gets orders From the National Desk
Published 3/3/2003 5:20 PM
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FORT HOOD, Texas, March 3 (UPI) -- The 17,000 soldiers of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division received deployment orders Monday in the U.S. war on terrorism.
Army officials would only confirm that the unit received deployment orders, refusing to say where or when the troops would move out.
US airpower continues to attack the four Republican Guard divisions around Baghdad while additional troops are coming up for a potential siege. If the air bombardment presents an opportunity for attack, the 3rd Infantry and 101st Airborne are in position to take advantage. Otherwise, additional troops are coming up for a large scale siege. Two or Three more US divisions are expected to be in place in two weeks. "They will keep bombing and shelling and if the Republican Guard cracks they will go in," said Lawrence Korb, former U.S. assistant defense secretary. "But I don't think they will do it unless the clear opportunity presents itself."
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the vice chief of operations on the Pentagon's Joint Staff said conditions are being set to weaken the Iraqi divisions and create an opening to attack it directly on the ground, McChrystal said, "All of the pieces are falling in place." McChrystal said U.S. ground troops had not yet engaged Republican Guard units in direct combat, other than the attacks by Apaches. He said the helicopter attacks followed military doctrine -- combining deep strikes with psychological operations and, soon, artillery fire -- to weaken the Medina division before the Army's 3rd Infantry Division hits it full force.
By Martin Walker
UPI Chief International Correspondent
From the International Desk
Published 3/28/2003 4:51 AM
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CAMP DOHA, Kuwait, March 28 (UPI) -- The battle of the Sunni triangle has begun, and coalition commanders now hope it will last for some time before they close in on the city of Baghdad. Bounded by the cities of Baghdad, Najaf and Kut, this triangle of some 1,200 square miles is the heartland of the Sunni Muslims and the cradle of the ancient Babylonian civilization.
It is now to become a killing ground. As the skies clear and the fierce sun of spring burns down, the U.S. combat helicopters and air power have been unleashed upon the Republican Guard and Iraqi army forces who are being constantly reinforced to hold this bleak and flat terrain.
In the view of coalition commanders in Camp Doha, Kuwait, this is a gift. With steady pressure from their own ground troops, they can fix the Iraqi forces in place where they can be killed from the air. And the more Saddam's loyalists are ground down in this happy hunting ground for U.S. air power, the fewer they will meet in the streets of Baghdad.
And in the meantime, as they await the arrival of reinforcements, the U.S. troops can scour the remaining guerilla threats to their supply lines, 300 miles back to Kuwait, and start the "hearts and minds" campaign with humanitarian supplies among the Shiite Muslims of southern Iraq.
Humanitarian Aid Arrives: Thanks to the Brits and the US Marines who took the port, and sailors who cleared the mined harbor, the people of Basra, Shiites dependant upon foreign aid, are getting the resources they need to stay alive. The first coalition ship carrying humanitarian aid to Iraq has docked at the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. The British ship [HMS] Sir Galahad docked Friday evening carrying a cargo of water, food, medicines, blankets and shelter.
Aid workers say the situation in nearby Basra, Iraq's second largest city, is even more critical because of ongoing unrest there. British spokesman, Group Captain Al Lockwood, says Iraqi paramilitary forces Friday fired on hundreds of civilians who were trying the leave Basra.
"As they left they were followed by paramilitary forces who opened fire on the civilians," Captain Lockwood said. "Fortunately, Black Watch [British forces] observed what was happening, moved forward, placing themselves between the civilians and the paramilitaries, and have engaged the paramilitaries."
Kurd Victories in the North:
Kurdish 'peshmerga' fighters with US Special Forces assistance crossed the front line at Chamchamal, 40 kilometres east of the key oil city of Kirkuk, into territory formerly controlled by the Iraqi army.
After being pounded by US airpower, Iraqi troops abandoned their bunkers, artillery positions and machine gun installations on a ridge they had held over Chamchamal for the past 12 years, since the creation of a Kurdish autonomous zone. Guns and mortars had also been left in hilltop positions that overlook Kirkuk. The Iraqis beat a hasty retreat.
General Mam Rostam, leader of the Kurdish peshmerga forces at Chamchamal, said his soldiers had occupied positions four kilometres over the line, with scouts moving farther down the road. Iraqi installations most of the way to Kirkuk had been abandoned, he said.
It was the first Kurdish victory of the war, and sent a sense of exhilaration through Chamchamal, where men fired guns in the air and civilians flocked to the former Iraqi position to see the view from the other side. The city had lived in the shadow of the Iraqi military — and occasional shelling — for more than a decade.
Kirkuk, a major northern oil center, may become a major battleground soon. Some Kurd leaders think Baghdad will be taken first. Shalaw Askari, a member of the PUK central committee who met with Khalilzad Thursday, said that even though the PUK advance was "very encouraging" for the forces, he still did not believe that the Kurdish forces would be part of a U.S.-led military offensive into Kirkuk and Mosul.
"First the U.S. will need to cut the head of the snake in Baghdad," said Askari. "When they do that they won't even have to take the cities by force. They will just fold and we will be looking at a handover of power. That is what we are expecting, what we are hoping."
We will see. With urban warfare in Baghdad presenting a bloodbath for all concerned, the northern front may become more active while Baghdad is surrounded, cut off and besieged.
U.S. Special Operations forces have broken the Iraqi government's control over a broad swath of territory in western Iraq that extends about 200 miles into the country from the border with Jordan. The Washington Post reported a senior US official described the area claimed by U.S. forces. He said it stretches from the border with Jordan past the Mudaysis airfield, 170 miles to the east and that in trying to secure the area, U.S. troops faced "some combat engagements," but he declined to provide details. "I wouldn't say we control all the area, but it is territory that Saddam no longer controls," the senior official said."
The area is critical to stopping SCUD attacks on Israel. Not one SCUD has been fired at Israel. That issue was plastered all over the world as too severe a risk to take - a reason not to go to war. Somehow, that success is grossly underreported in the mass media. We see it. Thank you, Special Forces