Britain to fight Saddam on three fronts (Great graphics)

Daily Telegraph ^ | Filed: 14/09/2002 | Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent

[Almondjoy]

My conclusion would be expansion of power.. the Indians and Russians have every reason for China not to have Taiwan back.. having Taiwan would give them much more politcal and economic influence to sway all of Asia however she so chooses.

[Polybius]

It's on the front page of a UK newspaper? Doesn't make it right! In fact it probably makes it wrong as in "misinformation."

Maybe it's misinformation. Maybe it's not. :-)

Just to play it safe, Saddam should divide his forces and defend against all of these possibilities. That's what Hitler did when he defended Pais de Calais, the "main invasion site" that was going to be attacked by Patton's fictitious First US Army Group (FUSAG).

That diversionary tactic the Allies pulled at Normandy wasn't going to fool old Adolph. :-)

The World War II spy thriller "Eye of the Needle" is based on the Donald Sutherland character, a German spy, discovering that FUSAG did not really exist and his need to get that information back to Germany.

The fictitious divisions of the non-existant First US Army Group even had their own patches.

Shown below, in order, are the patches of the fictitious 6th, 18th, 21st and 135th Airborne Divisions and the 22nd, 46th, 48th, 59th, 108th, 119th and 130th Infantry Divisions.

[johnb838]

Believe me I pray that you and all your Marine brothers come home safe. And if anybody can get that shot I hope to heaven they take it and that their aim is true. I think getting the shot will be difficult and dangerous.

Bottom line, I beat the drum for war on here a lot. It is not because I think lightly of the consequences. I've studied my history enough to know that if evil is not confronted and defeated the price of victory keeps getting higher. And confronting it this early is not the historical norm. We have a chance to bind something terrible and loose something wonderful in the world.

I'm no soldier but I'm behind you guys all the way. And I'm ready and willing to give my life for a just cause if it becomes necessary. At this point I will be satisfied with my life and death if I can make it mean something.

So Semper Fi back 'atcha. I've got your back. For what that's worth.

[maestro]

15-1

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

It's already started. Remember when over 100 Brit and US planes particiipated in taking out air defenses last week? I bet the turnaround in French, Dutch, and Spanish attitude ( and others) is due not just to President Bush's great speech at the UN, but also due to the fact the we and the Brits already have boots on the ground and the clock is running.

Agreed. Makes's "asking permission" a bit useless, as the plan is ALREADY under way, wratcheting up a notch at a time.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

It's already started. Remember when over 100 Brit and US planes particiipated in taking out air defenses last week? I bet the turnaround in French, Dutch, and Spanish attitude ( and others) is due not just to President Bush's great speech at the UN, but also due to the fact the we and the Brits already have boots on the ground and the clock is running.

Agreed. Makes's "asking permission" a bit useless, as the plan is ALREADY under way, wratcheting up a notch at a time.

[John_11_25]

Sometimes, when the military leaks, they do it on purpose.

Like Sun Tzu said, if they think you will attack from the north, from the south, from the east and from the west, then they will have to guard all theses areas, then they will be weak in all areas. Whereas if they know exactly where you will attack they will be able to stongly defend that area.

There is an agreement in the UK with all media, which enables the government to blank out or hold all news relavent to national security. I do not know if they have the same agreement in the US media. I know they do not have an agreement with the congress or the senate, as histroy shows./sarcasim

[johnb838]

Actually, in Britain they have a law against printing state secrets

OK, I just waded through some of the US criminal code and I didn't get to the specific citation but there is a great deal of law regarding the publication i.e. telling or printing, of classified information. It is just like the treason, sedition, conspiracy, insurrection, etc, etc, laws... they are there they are just not enforced any more. They need to be, no matter how much the liberals squeak. But... gotta get the MOR vote and that would lose some of them, at least until we can really shine the light on just how much some of these b@astards (even US citizens) really want to kill us and bring us down. Thanks for the rant space.

[VaBthang4]

Cheesy...

A. The US Marine Corps isnt gonna be stranded on some friggin island that has close to zero tactical or strategic importance and even if taking Bubiyan[sp?] is part of the plan....it hardly qualifies as a "thrust".

Oi...

All these armchair reporter soldiers...

Completely securing Western Iraq will be a very important part of any assault. This ahem...plan doesnt even go into that.

Look it is pretty easy...

SF operators will go in [if they havent already] and identify two or three airbases in western Iraq that we can take. Ala the airbase south of Kandahar, Afghanistan.

We'll take those and secure western Iraq...

You'll see armour & US Marines roll up from Kuwait.

You'll see airborne forces secure the roads and highways to Iran...[IMHO you can bet on this!]...and you'll see forces spill in from the north....Kurds or Turks? I dunno.

Oh yeah...mix in one hell of an air assault and you prettty much have the lay of the land.

Add some fog of war here....some tactics not seen before there...and you've got all the fixins for "Slap Iraq Part II".

[elfman2]

" this 250,000 number that is being banged around is insane, there is no need for that many troops"

I agree that the assault might be accomplished much leaner, but I think that many troops will be needed to manage the POWs and establish security.

[BlessingInDisguise]

"Loose freakin' lips!!!!!!!"

Give me a break...

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Boy this loose lips sinks ships crap really took hold on the home front didnt it ?

[AmericanInTokyo]

I can only imagine a smiling Hitler reading the morning edition of the London Telegraph in 1944 with neat graphics showing Omaha Beach, Sword Beach, Juno Beach. Sheesh, this is ludicrous!

[bybybill]

Why does everybody think that Saddammnn wants to die? He has to know that this time he can`t BS his way out of trouble. GWB is not going to be stopped, we have the ability to destroy the Iraqi military in hours, and we have enough support to make this all happen. Bet our boy Saddammnn passes on visiting the virgins and ,in exchange for the right to keep breathing, boggies out of Bagdad.

[DallasMike]

Boy this loose lips sinks ships crap really took hold on the home front didnt it ?

Yep! I understand the sentiment but don't put a lot of stock in the things that get published. Does anyone seriously think, for example, that it hasn't already occurred to Saddam that invading forces would come from both Turkey and the Gulf through Basra? Duh, football!

Plus, Bush is pretty good about pulling the fast one on his opponents. He just snookered the entired United Nations last week, for goodness' sakes, and some still think that he's a dumb cowboy! Very little gets out that Bush doesn't want to get out. All we can do is sit back, smile, and hope that the Iraqi high command swallows these "top-secret" articles as much as some people do here on FR.

[P8riot]

Probably won't happen this way.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

hope that the Iraqi high command swallows these "top-secret" articles as much as some people do here on FR.

He he he :your right i just think its funny people say loose lips sink ships then try and post "sensational news" like it matters it was posted here.

Its just darn funny!

[connectthedots]

The truth is always accompanied by a host of lies. This is done for two purposes. First, in no disinformation was put out, anything that was leaked would be the truth and would disclose the actual plan. Second, disinformation forces the enemy to plan for contingencies and tie up men and equipment in areas where they will no do any good. There is no possible way to tell from this story how Iraq will be invaded.

[defenderSD]

"If Saddam resorts to the use of Chem/Bio weapons things are going to get ugly and we might lose a few thousand troops.

I wouldn't worry too much about chem/bio weapons. 95% of that stuff will be incinerated by air power before any of our troops reach the area. Any remaining chem/bio weapons will be priority targets for fighter jets, tanks, and artillery, so those weapons will have a useful life of about 30 minutes. I think the ground phase of this attack will be more methodical than Desert Storm because of the need to destroy chem/bio weapons before any area can be invaded. It will be more like a 3 week ground war. Bio weapons are highly over-rated as a military weapon, because they have to be delivered in high concentrations and that's just not possible against fast-moving US forces that don't allow the enemy to get close to them. Bio weapons are more effective against unsuspecting people who don't even know they're being attacked. I'm afraid the Iraqi soldiers and civilians are going to be damaged by their own chemical weapons as we're destroying them. Looks like one last month of suffering by the Iraqis before the evil regime is gone.

[defenderSD]

Speaking of disinformation, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi made a statement yesterday that military action could happen in January or February of 2003. I think Silvio is helping us spread some disinformation about the timing of an attack. (Those Italian businessmen are very savvy.) I doubt that we would wait until January. That just gives Iraq more time to prepare their defenses. If Iraq does not allow unlimited inspections the attack will be much sooner, probably in November.