March 24, 2003
JUST AS FAST AS WE CAN GET THERE:
U.S. troops begin attacking Republican Guard forces (MATT KELLEY, March 24, 2003, Associated Press)U.S. helicopters have begun attacking Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard forces arrayed around Baghdad, a Pentagon official said Monday.Asked about ground forces, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said, "We have not gotten into direct firefights with Republican Guard forces." The Army's Third Infantry division moved to within 50 miles of the Iraqi capital.
He said that thus far in the war, 2,000 precision-guided weapons have been used against the Iraqis.
"All of the pieces are falling into place," McChrystal told a Pentagon briefing.
Like many an armchair general, I had no clue how long it would take just to move our troops as far and as fast as we did--which, as Tom Ricks of the Washington Post said on Diane Rehm today, was one of the historic feats in military history--but supposed they'd be there by last night. Looks like we're there tonight instead and now we'll see how many Iraqis have to die before the "men of the mustache" feel that honor has been satisfied. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 24, 2003 6:26 PM
Even some generals, including one alleged to have been a former commandant of the Army War College, have been trumpeting the speed of the move.
Well, speed ain't everything. You can get a regiment to Baghdad in a shorter time than a division, a division in less time than it takes to get an assault army.
You have to allow time to bring up munitions, fuel, food and water before you launch your assault.
Nobody but the incompetents in the American press ever imagined the Iraqis would oppose the dash across the desert. Taking your Goliath essay (with which I do not agree, by the way) to heart, why would they stand in the open without armor or air cover and allow themselves to be slaughtered?
The question -- yet unanswered -- was whether they would resist at all. The pinprick resistance so far means nothing -- except of course to the few men who get killed.