April 3, 2003
WE NEED MORE "STUPID" TEXANS:
Baghdad: Outside in and inside out (Marc Erikson, 4/04/03, Asia Times)General Franks' "phoney pause"After advancing some 200 miles out of Kuwait in 36 hours, Central Command slowed the coalition forces' progress north for a week. The New York Times and other knowledgeable newspapers and sources credited the Fedayeen Saddam and other Iraqi irregulars with causing the slowdown. Franks' (and Rumsfeld's) war plan came under fierce attack from talking heads on TV - mostly retired colonels of whom it should have been asked why they never made general's grade. It was no forced pause. It was a time to prepare the battlefield around Baghdad with heavy air power and to await the arrival of the US 4th Infantry - the US Army's finest - at Kuwait for backup if needed.
The offensive on Baghdad started on Tuesday. The 3rd ID resumed its push north, west of the Euphrates, to Karbala. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) pushed north between the Euphrates and Tigris. They would meet the Republican Guard divisions head on, said the talking heads (with French training?). They did no such thing, of course. Simultaneously, on Tuesday night, the 3rd ID turned East and crossed the Euphrates near Karbala, the I MEF turned east and crossed the Tigris after destroying the Guards' Baghdad division at al-Kut in less than 24 hours; meanwhile, Guderian-style, but with Apache helicopters rather than tanks, the 101st Airborne cut across the Euphrates at Hindiya and split Republican Guard forces to the south and north of it.
Franks, the University of Texas drop-out and "muddy boots" soldier who never made it to West Point, has carried out a coordinated wheeling east maneuver about which military historians will write for years to come. During the Gulf War in 1991, he was ADC (assistant division commander -maneuver) of the US 1st Cavalry that confronted Republican Guards north of the Kuwait desert. He appreciates their fighting strength; he wasn't impressed with their tactical maneuvering skills. He and his staff officers have put such insights to use.
The "pause" was a pause. Backup by the US 4th ID was reasonably regarded as critical by Franks, who is no cowboy, but a meticulous, careful and patient planner. It was also a ruse, preparing for the wheel east, driving through Iraqi positions from the flank. This has brought US forces to the immediate outskirts of Baghdad in 48 hours - a move that "informed" French military observers writing in Le Monde (Monday) estimated might take another month of fighting. The French, it seems, are a bit hard at learning.
A lot of correspondents and pundits did some serious damage to their reputations by panicking over the "pause".
CASUALTIES OF THE "PAUSE":
-Warring Tribes, Here and There (MAUREEN DOWD, 4/02/03, NY Times)
-Stuck in the Quicksand (David H. Hackworth, 04-01-2003)
-Too Little Shock, Not Enough Awe (William M. Arkin, 3/30/03, LA Times)
-The War and the Peace: The Pentagon's dubious plans. (Robert Wright, April 1, 2003, Slate)
-OFFENSE AND DEFENSE: The battle between Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon. (SEYMOUR M. HERSH, 3/31/03, The New Yorker)
-President Bush's aides (Joshua Micah Marshall, 3/30/03, Talking Points Memo)
-What Was Rumsfeld Thinking? (Mickey Kaus, 3/30/03, Slate)
-Bush reportedly shielded from dire forecast: Outlooks of quick war may have prevailed (WARREN P. STROBEL, Mar. 29, 2003, Knight Ridder)
-It will end in disaster: The US and British governments have dragged us into a mess that will last for years (George Monbiot, April 1, 2003, The Guardian)
Anyone got more?
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 3, 2003 9:12 PMRetired Maj. Gen. Staples, Fox and NPR.
Not one of those journalists you list knows
anything about logistics. There'd have been
a pause anyhow; you don't move a corps
300 miles in 2 or 3 days, even if the leading
elements cover the distance that fast.
I haven't been spending a great deal of time
on war news and have only heard from Cordesman
once since the campaign started. But his
commentaries during the months of sitzkrieg
were hilarious. He changed his analysis every
day.
Operation Iraqi Freedom as planned and exercised is the epitome of Basil H. Liddell-Hart's Strategy
which is no small achievement and resurrection of Hart's reputation.
That purposeful deception was integral to this campaign is evident. By using timely leaks to such outlets as the NYT and WaPo to the "phoney pause", Gen. Franks accomplished what was said to be impossible with such an apparent buildup, tactical surprise.
But sweetest of all was the "dislocation of the enemy's psychological and physical balance" with the decapitation strike followed by ground assault (very much of the indirect approach) instead of the anticipated "shock and awe" air campaign.
"Amateurs talk tactics - professionals study logistics."
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at April 4, 2003 6:44 AMThere are three types of attack...the physical, the economic, and the morale attacks. Reading JFC Fuller's, The Generalship of US Grant, would do Dowd & Co. some good. : )
Posted by: bartman at April 4, 2003 9:54 AMThose French experts must be the grandsons of those who, in 1941, expected Eben Emael to hold the Germans up for six weeks. Six hours was more like it.
I don't know if the French are insane, but I wouldn't use them as an example of proper brain function.
The miletary use the media and all its talking heads as part of their battle plan. The funny part is the the media are always shocked at the own predictability
Good one for Franks and Rummy.
What if they had a perfect battle plan and nos this horrible flawed?. Would we be in Paris by now?.
I look at that list, and all I see are the top blowhards whose useless opinions were of no value long before they started seeing pauses transforming into quagmires.
Although it is pleasing to see them keep to form.
I don't know Harry. Cordesman's squiggles all looked the same to me. And he talked about the water obstacles and canals right to the end. Unfortunately, we did have a humvee role into a canal though.
Bob, I think the French may drink too much red wine; so I'm going to reduce my intake ... of French red wine that is!