[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It is going to get ugly if we don't take him out quickly and soon!

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[tet68]

US troops have also had little training for fighting in urban areas in recent years,

No point reading any farther.

[Klein-Bottle]

The question is, Will Iraqi soldiers be willing to destroy their own country?

[Dialup Llama]

>US officials believe that in any attack on Baghdad besieging forces would most likely meet Iraqi forces deployed in 'collapsible concentric rings' who would try to draw US troops into fighting for the city's streets.

'collapsible concentric rings' are a defense, they are also a bullseye.

[Damagro]

Better their scorched earth than ours

[Paleo Conservative]

The generals ought to think before they give orders to sabotage their own country's infrastructure. The new government might decide to put them on trial for treason.

[xzins]

How 1940's of these folks who worry about all that stuff being blown up.

Iraq is small enough, and isolated enough, that it simply doesn't matter.

The air assets will have all the firepower they can handle over those rivers faster'n' you can say Apache/Blackhawk/Chinook/A10/etc.

They slow from a blaze to a sprint.

[SuziQ]

This is another good reason to allow journalists to travel with different batallions or companies. If they come upon a bridge or other infrastructure already destroyed, it will give photographic proof if Sadaam later tries to claim that that damage was done by those Allied forces.

[SuziQ]

US troops have also had little training for fighting in urban areas in recent years, despite efforts to improve their urban warfare skills after the debacle in Somalia

I just saw a show on TV a couple of weeks ago talking about the training our soldiers were receiving in just this kind of combat. Maybe it only began in the last year or two, but they ARE getting trained for this! I hope Sadaam and his army continue to believe otherwise, however!