Hussein Statue in Baghdad Toppled

Saw the live coverage this morning on all the channels in LA... 2, 4, 5, 7, 11... Just amazing! Of course, cautionary words eminated from DC and rightly so. There are still pockets of fanatics who plan to go out in a blaze of glory. There is speculation that the remanent of the regime has slipped out to Tikrit. So more work remains ahead to root out the last of the Baathists. And of course, the huge task of "winning the peace" is ahead beginning with restoring vital services like medical, water, food, and electricity. And then after that, to establish a new government that will accomodate all factions: Shia, Sunnis, Kurds, in country dissedents and exile Iraqis.

On a military note, two articles to draw your attention to. There undoubtedly will be more. Here is one that looks at the speed of the US/UK operations seen on MSNBC citing an AP article.

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Excerpt:

It began as a three-pronged assault.
??? Part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit was in the center, driving north between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. To the east, the rest of the unit advanced toward Baghdad along the Tigris. On the west, the Army's 3rd Infantry Division drove north along the west bank of the Euphrates. In all, the advance involved fewer than 40,000 men ?far smaller than the Iraqi force guarding Baghdad.
??? Every night, F/A-18 Hornet and F-14 Tomcat strike fighters screamed off aircraft carriers, hunting down Iraqi tanks, artillery and command centers to lay the groundwork for the next day's advance. B-52s and Tomahawk missiles added to the destruction.
??? Captured Iraqi soldiers described searching in vain for shelter during bombardments that turned Iraqi vehicles into pillars of smoke. Deprived of their equipment, Republican Guard troops began abandoning positions and shedding their uniforms.
??? Continual bombing of Iraqi communications and command centers in Baghdad apparently made it impossible for senior officers to mount an organized defense.
??? Here and there, advancing U.S. forces met spirited but often poorly organized resistance.
??? At dawn on Tuesday, April 1, the 4th Marine Regiment ?the middle prong of the advance ?moved on Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, and encountered Iraqis armed with rocket-propelled grenades, Kalashnikovs and machine guns.
????'The Iraqis were pretty determined,'' said Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy. The fighting lasted until mid-afternoon. At least 75 Iraqi troops were killed and 44 taken prisoner.
??? The Marines had no interest in occupying the town. They simply destroyed the Iraqi force and kept moving.
??? To the west, the 3rd Infantry Division was approaching the Karbala Gap, a narrow strip of land between the Euphrates and a reservoir west of the city of Karbala. It was a natural place for Iraqi forces to try to stop the advance.
The expected heavy resistance never materialized.
????'It was amazing,'' said Lt. Col. Scott Rutter.


And here is one that looks at the mistakes made by the Iraqi military found in the British newspaper, Telegraph written by John Keegan.
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Excerpt:

Iraq presents a considerable military problem to the invader, particularly one obliged to attack from the sea, as the British found in 1915-17. The point of entry, in the Gulf, is very narrow. Beyond, the terrain stretches away for 800 miles to the Turkish border and, although the central plain between the Tigris and Euphrates is almost as flat as a billiard table, the topography nevertheless presents major obstacles to an attacker making his way north at frequent intervals.

The key objectives are the cities, and most of them, Baghdad in particular, are protected by large water barriers. Saddam's correct strategy would have been to group his best forces in the south, to oppose the Anglo-Americans as far from the capital as possible, and then to conduct a fighting withdrawal up the valleys of the great rivers, leaving devastation behind.

The port facilities at Umm Qasr, Iraq's only deep-water harbour, should have been sabotaged at the outset. Then the bridges across the Tigris and Euphrates should have been blown in a step-by-step retreat, to keep the coalition out in the desert to slow its progress and to force it into the laborious and potentially costly procedure of emergency bridging.

The Americans had, presciently, brought several large bridging units with them, the best-equipped capable of constructing a ribbon bridge 800 metres wide, but they have not been required. Instead, the Iraqi defenders either abandoned the existing bridges intact or conducted the most feeble of efforts to deny them to the enemy.

Thus, instead of fighting to delay the American advance to Baghdad, Saddam allowed the two leading American formations, the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Expedition Force, to arrive within striking distance of Baghdad very quickly indeed. Not only was space, the most valuable of all dimensions in an effective defence, surrendered without a fight.