Fiercely Proud American

Okay, here is what I would have done if I had been in charge of the ground-war in Iraq.

Objective(s):

Long Term:

1 - To completely secure Iraq militarily and eliminate all major resistance within six months.

2 - To begin establishing relations with the Iraqi people, and assist in reconstruction of the infrastructure – as each city, town, etc., is declared a green-zone – within six months.

3 – As each town or city is declared a green-zone, begin to establish humanitarian aid, hospitals, food, water, electricity, etc.

4 - To begin reestablishing Iraqi Police and Army forces, including training and equipping as necessary within 12 months.

5 - To encourage and help establish a viable and representative Iraqi government within eighteen months.

6 – To hold democratic elections representing all factions of society in twenty-four months.

7 - To have Iraqi Police and Armed Forces in place and operational within twenty-four months.

8 – To have a total functioning Iraqi government and Iraqi Constitution in place within thirty months.

(At this time US State Department along with representatives from the Iraqi government together begin to contact Arab nations in region to attempt to negotiate and establish peaceful relations –

NOTE: This is done from a position of “strength” and not from weakness or conciliatory)

9 - To begin returning US Forces within thirty months.

10 - To have all major US Armed Forces units out no later than thirty-six months after start of initial operations.

Short Term: See below

Prior to start of ground war operations – 5 days of intensive aerial bombardment aimed at all Iraqi forces positioned facing south.

For the ground war, start with 550,000 Combined US Army and US Marine Corps soldiers.

Day 1 Ground Assault:

0600 Hrs
US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16’s commence bombing and strafing runs outside Ramadi, Falluja, Karbala and Barqubah – if military targets are sighted then they are eliminated. This is meant as a decoy action to confuse elements of the Iraqi Army that are positioned just outside Baghdad and facing south toward Kuwait, where our ground forces have been staging.

Additionally, this is meant to flood whatever lines of Command & Control communications that the Iraqis still have working with so much traffic they will be unable to make any sense out of what is happening. This is to continue until 0700 at which time it ceases.

0615 Hrs:

Utilizing a combination of all US Air Force Transports C-130 HERCULES, C-141 STARLIFTER, C-17 GLOBEMASTER III and C-5 GALAXY transports which have already been in flight, from Diego Garcia begin deploying:

1 complete US Army Infantry Mechanized Division w/ 1 Company of Force Recon Marines between Ar Rujbah and Jordanian border

1 complete US Army Infantry Mechanized Division w/ 1 Company of Force Recon Marines at Al Qaim

1 complete US Army Infantry Mechanized Division w/ 1 Company of Force Recon Marines at Sinjara

This is to cover the Iraqi border from Jordan thru Syria and will overlap the Turkish and Saudi Arabian borders.

The 82nd Airborne Division and 1 Company of Force Recon Marines at Rawanduz

The 101st Airborne Division and 1 Company of Force Recon Marines at Khanaqin

The 10th Mountain Division and 1 Company of Force Recon Marines at Halabjah

This is to cover the Iraqi / Iranian border.

Each military unit will be responsible for establishing their main base of operations, and border patrols, and spreading out toward each other to effectively seal the entire country off from the outside. The mission objectives are – no one in and no one out.

0900 Hrs:

The drive from Kuwait into Iraq commences, with:

1 US Army Mechanized Brigade and1 Company Force Recon Marines moving and taking positions along the Saudi Arabian border

1 US Army Mechanized Brigade and 1 Company Force Recon Marines moving and taking positions along the Iranian border.

2 complete US Army Infantry Divisions Mechanized to follow the route that was employed by CENTCOM.

Military personnel with appropriate armament, etc., are deployed by air and are to secure all Iraqi oil fields using whatever force is necessary.

1200 hrs:

All units that were airlifted and deployed on the Iraqi borders to have established offensive and defensive perimeters along with complete lines of communication with headquarters in Kuwait and each other. The next objective is to seal off the borders so that no one in and no one out.

Once Baghdad is reached:

Declare Martial Law – no civilian vehicles allowed on the streets at any time, or they will be destroyed.

Establish military patrols throughout the city to ensure the above.

Set up military medical stations in various sections guarded by troops – establish communication areas where civilians can report medical emergencies and be transported to the military med stations for treatment using military vehicles only.

Divide the city into sections like a graph, and begin searching section by section confiscating all weapons and bomb making materials – use deadly force to deal with resistance.

Continue this until Baghdad is 100% under military control and is secured.

Use this same procedure with all other major cities.

While the above is going on in Baghdad, initiate offensive operations in all known Baathist and terrorist strongholds, like Tikrit, Falluja, etc., and employ the same methods to clear out each.

See Objective(s) Long Term.

The above operations and various missions properly initiated would have achieved significant goals that could have been reported to the American people by the embedded reporters in a timely manner.

They would have been swift and efficient offensive operations that would have denied the terrorists and loyal Baathists time, etc., to group and attempt to confront our forces, and would have completely eliminated any and all methods of obtaining weapons and necessary supplies, and reinforcements from outside Iraq.

Our military casualties would have been significantly reduced to under 500, and collateral damage to less than accepted numbers for this type of operations.

We'd almost be totally out of there by now.


Now - what say you ?????

__________________
America Love Her or Leave
For God & Country - To Serve, Protect & Defend
PTSD - Don't Leave Nam Without It (I didn't)

Just Me 2

Wow you have really thought about this. Are you in the military?

__________________

Fiercely Proud American

Thank you - yes I did give it serious consideration.

I was 1958 thru 1965. Wanted to make it a career, but PTSD got in the way 2-1/2 years after I came back from Nam.

If the United States is going to deploy her Armed Forces into a combat zone, you go in to win - and nothing short of victory should be considered.

5-Star General of the Army - Douglas MacArthur

Lt. General George S. Patton

General of the Air Force, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Curtis E. LeMay

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Hatuey

The only problem with your plan are these guys.





The monkey boy and freaky Botox lady aren't the problem. It's that penguin in the middle. I heard he's shot people who don't eat babies in the face.

__________________
Is Intolerant Because He Won't Let The Intolerant Run Other People's Lives.

1069

Is he wearing rouge in that photo?
What's with those pink spots on his cheeks?

__________________
Lightdemon: "Is 10 going to outer space or something?"
Jerry: "...yes, 10 is going to outerspace."

Fiercely Proud American

Hatuey:
Please explain yourself

Fiercely Proud American

1069:
Is that the extent of your contribution to this subject

Hatuey

Come on buddy don't play coy. We all know Bush doesn't really run much. He just smiles, creates study groups and apologizes every time somebody in his administration makes a retarded assumption. Everybody knows the people running this war are Cheney, Rove and well Rummy when he was around. The president just waits and does what he's told.

Hatuey

That my dear is the power of a Nikon D80. At 10.1 Mega pixels it'll even catch the lies these ****ers tell as they escape their mouths.

G-Man

Although I was against the war I'd go along with that assessment.

Although to be fair the ground war itself was a great success with a 'victory' achieved in little time at all.

The aftermath of the 'victory' is what was never planned for and thats where all the problems arose.

If you have insufficient troop numbers (as the administration had already been told) to maintain law and order you CANNOT sack the entire police and army forces.

This created a security vacuum and let in the militias, which still operate to this day.

Other issues such as :-

1) Making no provision what-so-ever to close the borders made it too easy for foreign fighters to enter the country.

2) De-Baathification of the political/military/police powers resulted in no law and order/no civil servants and no authority. Further issues also occured because we went from a majority Sunni power to a complete Shia power - you do not rectify an oppression of one group by instigating the oppression of another.

3) Unemployment/Poverty turned the population against us

4) No reconstruction planned for immediately.

5) Too much hope pinned on the acceptance of a US favored politician to lead Iraq when it was clear 'outsiders' and 'western influenced persons' would not be desirable to the mainstream.

To be short we had a plan to defeat Saddam - that plan worked - we had no plan and no idea what would happen afterwards and the chaos that has ensued can be traced back to a lack of intelligent planning.