Saddam the black knight vs GW Bush...round 1
round 2
round 3
round 4
Come back here and fight like a man ...I will tear your country to shreds...yadda yadda yadda
Posted on 03/29/2003 5:43:46 PM PST by Pokey78
Saddam's deputy warns that Britain and America are to be targeted by suicide bombers, as US prepares for final assault on Baghdad
American forces have been ordered to prepare for a ferocious assault on Baghdad to begin in the next few days, in an operation intended rapidly to encircle the Iraqi capital and isolate and destroy the regime of Saddam Hussein.
According to sources with US units deployed along a vast curving front, stretching from just south of Kerbala to the south-west of Baghdad to north of Kut, a full-scale armoured assault against Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard units could begin within three days.
The attack is planned to last up to 10 days. Military strategists add that the second and most dangerous phase of the operation - the fighting to take Baghdad itself - could take up to five weeks.
The order to move on Baghdad comes as an Iraqi suicide bomber, the first of a wave threatened by Saddam and other senior Iraqi officials, blew himself up at a US checkpoint near Najaf, killing four American servicemen.
The suicide bombing is seen as a portent of the bitter nature of the combat to come, including the fear among many officers on the ground that Iraq will use chemical weapons to counter any advance against Baghdad.
Addressing a news conference in Baghdad, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan identified the bomber as Ali Jaafar al-Noamani, a non-commissioned officer in the Iraqi army and father of several children. He warned that more suicide bombers were being prepared.
As both sides increased the stakes, it became clear last night that the determination to move swiftly to the next phase of the campaign is being driven by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his aides.
Sources say that they are pressing General Tommy Franks, the head of the US Central Command, to attack the Republican Guard divisions defending Baghdad as soon as they have been softened up from the air, according to a Pentagon official.
If the battle happens soon, say the same sources, it would fall to one heavy armoured division, one light armoured division and a division of Marine infantry to destroy at least two and possibly more Republican Guard tank divisions blocking the approaches to Baghdad.
The orders to prepare for a full-scale assault on the Iraqi capital come as President George W. Bush said in his weekly radio broadcast that American-led forces were now less than 50 miles from the city and fighting the 'most desperate' Iraqi units.
Bush accused Saddam's 'dying regime' of committing dozens of atrocities against its own people and PoWs, citing reports of an Iraqi woman who 'was hanged for waving at coalition troops'.
He added that Iraqi forces were murdering citizens who refused to fight, brutalising and executing PoWs and opening fire under the flag of surrender. Iraqis claim that the US targeted a Baghdad market in an air raid, killing more than 50 civilians.
News that senior US officers are planning to renew their assault on Iraqi positions around Baghdad comes against mounting criticism of the conduct of the campaign, which critics allege has been ill-planned and executed, with intelligence that had suggested that Iraqi forces would surrender, not fight.
Signs that coalition forces are preparing to enter the next phase of the campaign - the battle for Baghdad - have been increasing in the past two days as aircraft and guided missiles have stepped up their bombardment of the city, targeting Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard positions in the suburbs. The disclosure that US forces are planning to press their attack on Baghdad despite problems with reinforcing frontline units and securing lines of communication emerged as American soldiers came under a suicide attack for the first time near Najaf, which killed four soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division.
The attack happened when a taxi stopped close to the US checkpoint, and the driver waved for help. As five soldiers approached the car, it exploded.
The suicide bombing was the first against either US or British forces since the campaign began 11 days ago. It followed public Iraqi appeals for volunteers for a Martyrs' Brigade of suicide bombers, and is a worrying portent of the kind of reception that US forces may meet as they move closer to Baghdad.
Iraq's Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, recently confirmed in a television interview that Iraq was prepared to use suicide attacks against the invading forces. 'We have prepared ourselves for all kinds of war. For many months, tens of thousands have volunteered to serve as martyrdom-seekers [suicide attackers] in the battle with the American enemy,' he said.
The suicide attack is the latest worrying development in the troubled allied invasion, which has been slowed by the unexpectedly strong resistance by Baath militias and by elements of the Iraqi armed forces.
Details of US plans to push on with their assault on the heart of Saddam's regime come despite claims - denied by US Central Command - that commanders had ordered 'an operational pause' of four to six days.
Washington and London are keen to push on to Baghdad, believing that every day of Iraqi resistance risks reinforcing growing Arab anger over the attack, which had been sold to Arab leaders as a short, clean campaign.
Instead, as the campaign has dragged on for 11 days against stiff Iraqi resistance, that anger has been reinforced by TV footage of Iraqi civilian casualties.
Last night former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook launched a devastating attack on the conflict, branding it a 'bloody and unnecessary war'.
Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is a bloody and unnecessary former Foreign Secretary.
Saddam the black knight vs GW Bush...round 1round 2
round 3
round 4
Come back here and fight like a man ...I will tear your country to shreds...yadda yadda yadda
Dang straight! We simply cannot afford to back down - its now or never to take on the beast.
If the Iraqui people could just figure out that we're trying to help them and find the courage to help US this could be over in no time at all.
Japan used Kamikazi pilots in desperation and the tactic failed. It will fail here. Saddam and his asshole supporters have alot to answer for here. Let's not forget that in the days to come.
"If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast." -- William Tecumseh Sherman
"If I find the press of Memphis actuated by high principle and a sole devotion to their country, I will be their best friend; but, if I find them personal, abusive, dealing in innuendoes and hints at a blind venture, and looking to their own selfish aggrandizement and fame, then they had better look out; for I regard such persons as greater enemies to their country and to mankind than the men who, from a mistaken sense of State pride, have taken up muskets, and fight us about as hard as we care about. In haste, but in kindness, yours, etc.,"
W. T. Sherman, Major-General.
!!!!!
The perfect reason to throw all noncitizen, nonChristian Arabs out of both countries and carefully investigate the citizens. The consequences to innocent Arabs will be very sad indeed, but there is no other solution that will protect us. As long as there are Arab Muslims we will be in danger from them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.