March 26, 2003
SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER?:
Republican Guard heads toward U.S. troops; British brace for fight for Basra (DAVID CRARY, 3/26/03, Canadian Press)A large contingent of Iraq's elite Republican Guard, including 1,000 vehicles, headed Wednesday toward U.S. marines in central Iraq - an area that already has seen the heaviest fighting of the war.Intelligence officers with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said the Iraqi forces were headed south from Baghdad on a route that avoids advancing U.S. army forces and leads them directly to the marines who have been fighting in recent days around Nasiriyah. The intelligence officers said about 3,000 Republican Guard troops were spotted in one town along Highway 7 and 2,000 more at another.
What would they be thinking? Nothing could make our job easier than for them to come out and fight us. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 26, 2003 11:06 AM
If this report is true - and I've seen it denied elsewhere - then presumably they feel that they are strong at Nasiriyah and want to gang up on the Marines there, to win at least one battle and hope to discourage us and encourage Saddam loyalists elsewhere. The main war here is psychological.
Posted by: Paul Jaminet at March 26, 2003 11:33 AMThere are a lot of Hog (A-10) drivers licking their chops right about now.
Posted by: Regards, Jeff Guinn at March 26, 2003 11:48 AMCry "Havoc," and let slip the Hogs of war!
Warthogs, that is. A-10s.
Maybe they've been seeing all those reports about our exposed flank? Maybe General Franks isn't so clueless as to leave a flank as exposed as we've been led to believe, and indeed has quite a little surprise waiting for the gullible Iraqis?
We shall see.
PJ;
I have to go with Mssrs. Judd & Guin on this one – if the movement of this unit is known to the media and it actually arrives at Nasiriyah then I would have to wonder why we have an Air Force.
Maybe it fits in with the sandstorm. They think they can win a battle using the cover of the sandstorm, reinforcing the idea that Allah's storm is punishing the Americans, etc...
Posted by: Matt at March 26, 2003 1:44 PMI can't make sense of this - either it will be a massacre for the Iraqis or they surprise us somehow and take a lot of casualties. Let's hope its the former.
Posted by: AWW at March 26, 2003 2:10 PMMy guess is that, assuming they have a plan beyond glorious martyrdom, it relies on the sandstorm obstructing our air power.
But I have a hard time believing this is a fight we would lose, even if we relied on tanks and Bradleys.
My guess is that, assuming they have a plan beyond glorious martyrdom, it relies on the sandstorm obstructing our air power.
But I have a hard time believing this is a fight we would lose, even if we relied on tanks and Bradleys.
AOG - I'm sure they'll be massacred, but they'd have been massacred if they stayed dug in also.
Posted by: Paul Jaminet at March 26, 2003 3:45 PMPaul: Yes, but they could bleed us if they were dug in. And our air advantage isn't neutralized, just diminished. This is either suicidal or stupid and suicidal.
Posted by: Chris at March 26, 2003 6:25 PM