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| Axis of Evil |
| Rumsfeld says Iraqi war to be finished fast |
| 2002-11-15 |
| If the United States goes to war in Iraq, the American military would move to "finish it fast," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday. "In the event that it becomes necessary, the United States would do it in a manner that would be respectful of human life on all sides, but would be determined to do the job and to finish it fast," he said. The quicker it's over, the fewer people who get killed or injured. Think "liberation," not destruction... Rumsfeld noted that occupying Iraqi forces collapsed quickly under assault from a U.S.-led coalition in the Kuwait desert in the 1991 Gulf War, and that hundreds of those soldiers at one point even surrendered to an unarmed journalist, AP quoted Rumsfeld as saying. "The idea that it is going to be a long, long, long battle of some kind, I think, is belied by what happened" then, he said. "The Gulf War lasted five days. I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months. But it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that," he stated. Actually, he's leaving off the air war, which lasted over a month. I hope the first month of this Gulf War is the same as the first month of that one. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #5 So I exaggerated. Sue me. |
| Posted by: Larry 2002-11-16 09:37:16 |
| #4 Don't forget we had to allow the "wuss forces" to participate last time. Probably added 3 days to the 5 day ground war. (Brits & Aussies definitely NOT "wuss forces") |
| Posted by: Larry 2002-11-16 09:35:12 |
| #3 You can write off the amphibious part. Those guys are a pricey asset that pretty vulnerable. There is no need for shore landings in this arena. |
| Posted by: flash91 2002-11-15 11:16:51 |
| #2 Agreed with Steve's analysis. Big difference in Persian Gulf War. There we had a centralised, entrenched force we needed time to soften up while we got our logistics in order. We are using the last 9 months to get our logistics in order for this one. It will be a 3 pronged attack. Central (Bagdahd) by air and Northern zone by air cavalry and airborne and the South by Marines (Amphibious) and Rangers with strong off-shore naval support. Say a week to launch and a week to contain. Maybe another few weeks to do noose tightening on Central. Don't forget PysOps. It will be a big part of the time of plan. |
| Posted by: Jack 2002-11-15 10:31:33 |
| #1 The air war and the ground war are going to happen at the same time this go around, I think. We don't want to give them to much time to deploy WMD. When all the carriers are on station and bombers are forward deployed, we can begin strikes while special ops begin targeting scud sites and other places of interest. Airborne forces will take airbases and the oil fields. The heavy armor troops will be flown in and matched up with their prepositioned equipment (48 hours) while this is going on and then push on to Baghdad. My guess is about two weeks, total. |
| Posted by: Steve 2002-11-15 09:51:21 |