Iraq Plans Scorched Earth Strategy And Urban Battle Plan [Drudge Headline]

New York Times ^ | February 15, 2003 | Michael R. Gordon

[Torie]

What Iraq has developed as a battle plan is press releases to try to frighten people. If the actual battle goes remotely like this, I will re-register as a Democrat, and move to North Carolina, and vote for Edwards.

[angkor]

This is all very interesting, but Pentagon wargaming has been underway for a year.

Welcome to another 72-hour "war."

[cubreporter]

Ha,ha,ha. Just saw on the news in Colorado Springs the peace protesters evidently did not have enough attention at their rally so they moved onto the street stopping traffic, now the cops have donned gas masks and are arresting them. Yaaaaaay. :))))

[operation clinton cleanup]

So if we attack Iraq, they will attack themselves?

[Thoro]

So if we attack Iraq, they will attack themselves?

It's the Judean People's Front Crack Attack Suicide Squad!

[WarSlut]

Who is going to carry out all this bloody, house-to-house combat, again?

These guys?

I don't think so.

[wretchard]

If you remove the breathless New York Times purple prose, the Iraqui strategy consists of ceding the country and concentrating the combat effectives into a cul-de-sac. Notice, too that Saddam is defending from behind his river line. He has no defense against a US advance northward on the other side of the Tigris-Euphrates until it turns east at any point it chooses. Ideally, the US should advance parallel to the river line and break in north of Baghdad to pin the Iraqui remnants against their own water barrier and flow around Baghdad.

But there is a further difficulty. Saddam's plan relies crucially on the willingness of his troops to fight to the death inside a trap. The US efforts of the last months have been devoted to subversion, subornation and undermining. I would not be surprised if the SOF had cells inside Baghdad. I wouldn't bet on Iraqui army devotion.

Saddam is counting, most of all, on relief from the Peace Movement. The Berkely crowd is his strategic reserve. But it will take time to mobilize. If the US can crack his shell in under a week, it will be all over bar the shouting. The scorched earth threats do pose a problem, but again, it relies upon the willingness of people to destroy their children's future for the sake of a man who, even the meanest village idiot must realize, will soon be in a Chicago overcoat by mid-March. Blowing Kuwaiti wells is one thing. Blowing your own well is another. My own assessment is that if this is the best Saddam can come up with, he should have stuck to politics.

[Movemout]

We will cut through them like a hot knife through butter. If the Iraqis hope to draw us into an urban battle they will lose that as well. With PGMs, we can take out any place that they congregate with a minimal amount of collateral damage. Sayanora Saddam!

[anniegetyourgun]

Good analysis, wretchard. I suspect your second paragraph covers quite a bit of ground. These people want to be liberated....even if they don't know how badly they need it.

My only joy will come in seeing the faces of those who are liberated, and the cowering of the Euros and anti-American leftists who slink off into hiding once they are proved to have been on the side of a very evil and sick regime.

[tessalu]

My war plan would be to bomb Iraq until we saw no person there standing up. I would not waste one American life, for it is just not worth it. We are dealing with savages here .

[mware]

I noticed this comment, destroy bridges.

I wonder if one of the bridges is the one that the Human Shields are protecting????

[wretchard]

"I suspect your second paragraph covers quite a bit of ground."

It's about the same distance covered by Barry McCaffrey's 24th Mech during Desert Storm. But it's over conceded ground and the Iraquis are barred from a flank attack by their own river. What keeps us out, keeps them in.

[gaijin]

It's reasonable to suspect Saddam of such a treacherous plan, but this article has a pre-emptive strategy:

If enough Americans are brought ahead of time to a mindset in which they doubt claims of suffering by Iraqi civilians, then much of these kind of Iraqi shenanigans can be headed off, if not merely lessened.

Still, I'm very curious to know where these journalists got their info.

IMAGINE --me, a freeper, questioning The Old Gray Lady....!

[tet68]

Saddam plans Kursk defense.
Psssssss, don't tell him it was over fifty years ago.

[The Wizard]

I loved this when I read it: here's the plan in a nutshell....Saddam is going to try and destroy his infratructure that has already been taken over by the allies and the anti Saddam Iraqis, and then he's going to sit in baghdad with the republican guard until they surrender and cut his throat....

What a battle plan

[The Wizard]

very funny line

[AntiGuv]

Much of the 'scorched earth' info is just an update of this Christian Science-Monitor article from December:

How US might counter 'scorched-earth' tactics

The urban warfare aspects have also been reported by numerous sources, especially in the British press. Here's an interesting Reuters article:

Iraq's "ghost" troops ready for urban warfare

The New York Times makes it appear as if it's some big scoop when they've really just collected material from a variety of sources. That being said, I find it helpful as a summary analysis.

Of course, there's every potential the Iraqi military will prove unable to organize or maintain any of these resistance tactics.

[Momaw Nadon]

Attack on Iraq Betting Pool

[geedee]

What, pray tell, might these geniuses be planning on burning in this Allah-abandoned hell-hole?