THE STRATFOR WEEKLY- Baghdad

STRATFOR ^ | 4/3/2003 | Dr. George Friedman

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Shut off the water supply to the city. Cyrus did this to Babylon ca 500 B.C. We could do it today. Divert the river, shut off the aqueducts and the siege would last about one week.

[thoughtomator]

We're not fighting with 1941 strategy anymore.

Den Beste's opinion I think is a more realistic appraisal of the situation.

[finnman69]

Making 60 year old comparisons to 21st modern warfare is ludicrous. Even Vietnam era comparisons do not fly.

[B-Chan]

Perhaps you could choose a better set of examples. In Atlanta and Vicksburg, the Union forces burned everything to the ground and starved the populations into submission. The people of Vicksburg were eating riverbank clay and starved mules towards the end.

And of course we simply burned Tokyo and Dresden to the ground.

Blockading a civilian population is not a humanitarian way to end a war. Effective? Yes -- but not humanitarian. We may not have the luxury of choosing which approach we use against Baghdad.

[Rockitz]

My great, great, great uncle was involved in the siege of Vicksburg- General John Alexander Logan.

[bootyist-monk]

Another situation where reality crushes a Stratfor article before the ink can dry.

[justshutupandtakeit]

LoL.

It ain't a siege but a blitzkreig.

[Rockitz]

I know what you mean. They seem to be historically knowledgeable, but lack integration of present day technologies, policy, economic, and military strategy into their analysis.