Posted on 03/26/2003 8:08:17 PM PST by KQQL
The former supreme allied commander of Nato has accused US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of putting allied troops at risk through poor planning.
Wesley Clark said Mr Rumsfeld's insistence on a smaller invasion force had left troops vulnerable and the 300-mile oil supply line between Kuwait and Basra open to guerilla attack.
Troops had been tied up in "messy fighting" around Nasiriyah and Baghdad, he said, leading to "logistics problems".
He added that hopes of a quick victory spurred by a popular revolt against Saddam had been dashed.
"The simple fact is that the liberation didn't quite occur. They didn't rise up."
Other war veterans have also spoken out against the early stages of war planning.
Miscalculations
Ralph Peters, a military scientist and former Army officer, wrote in the Washington Post that a coalition victory would be achieved "despite serious strategic miscalculations by the office of the Defence Secretary".
The "shock and awe" strategy of aerial bombardment had failed to shatter the will of Saddam's regime, he said, and if anything had encouraged greater resistance.
"It delayed essential attacks on Iraq's military capabilities," said Mr Peters. "This encouraged at least some Iraqis in uniform to believe they had a chance to fight and win.
"Now our forces advancing on Baghdad face the possibility of more serious combat than would otherwise have been the case."
Coalition commander General Tommy Franks's draft invasion plan proposed using four or five heavy divisions moving slowly towards Baghdad.
New warfare
Mr Rumsfeld is said to have rejected this, complaining that it was too similar to the strategy used in the 1991 Gulf War. Instead he insisted on a smaller, lighter force relying heavily on special forces and air power.
Retired US Army General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the 24th Infantry Division 12 years ago, said Mr Rumsfeld had ignored warnings that he was underestimating the number of troops needed.
"I think he thought these were generals with feet planted in World War Two who didn't understand the new way of warfare," he said.
"If the Iraqis actually fight it's going to be brutal, dangerous work and we could take a couple to 3,000 casualties."
Mr Rumsfeld insisted his strategy was working.
"It's a good plan everybody agrees to, and it is a plan that in four and a half or five days has moved ground forces to within a short distance of Baghdad."
I look at Iraq and her neighbours and just wince....their all treacherous.
Some situations become multi-layered for those who dream of toppling govs...and one gov in the region is very vulnerable..that being Jordan.
Yassir..the Fatah,,,Hamas[Palestinanian version of Hizbullah],Islamic Jihad..etc...want to put the young King in a pine box if they can.
Now he is in the way of the "Peoples" comming to free the besieged Iraqi's.
Even if the Iraqi's settle into a quasi relationship with a gov set in place by the U.S....the other Islamic nations surrounding Iraq will have hordes marching in their streets chanting "America has bewitched the Iraqi's...the Americans are making the Iraqi's dogs just like the Zionist want"..type thing.
So like Vietnam...insergents will slip into Iraq...and do what terrorists do..and then hunkerdown after to tell stories after their little terror ops...trying to win the confused Iraqi's back to pure Islam.
The other side of this nightmare is that a certain percentage of Iraqi's actually want the U.S. to go...and here you have a Vietnam repeat.
Will Iran be content to leave Iraq alone?
Can Jordan stop the pyscho terror orgs from the Palestinian realms from entering Iraq?
Will Syria reign in Hizbullah ,Al Qeda and other terror orgs in south Lebanon?
Time will tell...
It's a very, very bold thing we do--something no one, not 41 or 42, no one would have thought, let alone do.
It's epic and fraught with danger.
But the thought of freedom is a mustard seed.
The Vietnam War was REALLY the first televised war and because of T.V., it was people like YOU , who turned against this country ... oh and also because of the KGB, our own home grown COMMIES ( RED DIAPER BABIES and their parents and other fellow travellors ), aided and abbetted by you and dyour ilk, who imagine that they posess the ability to " understand " what's going on, when they don't.
They think and act as they did before, but reality bites!
They will be in the european union within 10-15 years. It is they who want to be a super power to challenge the U.S.
Unlike Clinto and LBJ, President Bush is making sure that our brave military has and shall have all they need to win this. That's wonderful ! :-)
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.