How would you organise Iraq's defences?

[Verto]

I would fly non-stop aerial flights over advancing American troops, dropping millions of leaflets with directions to Baghdad.


On a serious note : How to organize Iraq's defense. Well, maybe Saddam could ask Kuwait for some friendly, first hand advice.

[Urban Ranger]

Foster a subversion of Kuwaiti government about now. Just bribe some guy enough so that he invites Iraqi troops to come over. The puppet government can then kick out the US troops. This denies a buildup area for US troops and force them to delay.

Use hit and run tactics. The US supply lines will be long. Attack these with small mobile groups.

Mine the Kuwaiti harbours. Turn propaganda machines on the Kuwaiti government.

Get ready for some serious urban fighting. Make the war drag out. Wait for the bad news to hit home.

[Serb]

How would you organise Iraq's defences?

I would invited Vietnamese advisors and turn desert to jungle.

[OzzyKP]

I think the idea of ceding the nation to Iran is interesting. Of course Sadam would never do it, and Iran is probably not dumb enough to accept, but think about it.

He would pre-empt any possible war on Iraq, regime change already happened, too late US. The US has so far appeared reluctant to engage Iran at all, but Iran is beligerant enough to cause problems for the US. It would double the power of Iran, making it better able to combat the US influence and power. Plus it woud gain great support in the Muslim street, maybe lead to some kind of islamic unification movement. Big problem for US.

If not under sanctions and shoddy leadership Iraq can be a pretty wealthy, populous, powerful nation. Ending the political entity of Iraq, and giving it all over to Iran would effectively end the sanctions and calls for weapon inspections, allowing Iran to develop the combined resources into something formidable (relitively speaking).

[Bosh]

Hide all your good troops in the cities and try to make things as much like Black Hawk Down as possible

[Serb]

Black Hawk Down is stupid fairytale. I've almost throw up twice when I was watching it.

[Kingof the Apes]

Start licking boots at the UN, and starve your people to prove that your country is so weak that it can't even feed it's own people. Then let the antiwar people do the rest.

[Ramo]

Beating the US would be impossible, so the only hope is to make the victory so expensive on the part of the Americans, they'd be forced to withdraw. And waging an urban war instead of repeating the Gulf War would do precisely that.

[Urban Ranger]

Stop echoing me, Ramo

[Promethus]

Urban War will not happen. US will just lay siege to the cities and offer civillians free passage out.

[Ramo]

Bah!

[Urban Ranger]

Nothing wrong with that, what with great minds and all

[Kull]

Originally posted by Ramo
Beating the US would be impossible, so the only hope is to make the victory so expensive on the part of the Americans, they'd be forced to withdraw. And waging an urban war instead of repeating the Gulf War would do precisely that.

The "urban stronghold" seems to be the only real option he's got. And it's actually quite humorous, if you place this strategy in it's proper context. For example, Saddam's Gulf War tactic was a copy of WW1 - trenches, threats of gas, etc. But rather than send human waves at his lines (which Iran DID do, so maybe that's why he thought it would work), the US treated him to the spectacle of mobile air & armored war on the Grand Scale. WW1 meets Rommel on steroids - is it any wonder the Iraqi troops were slaughtered? So what does the military genius in Baghdad have in store for us this time?

Why it's a return to the Middle Ages! Yes, all you 100 Years War buffs, sit back and watch as Saddam tries to replicate the French strategy of sitting around inside their cities & castles while the English army marches helplessly through the countryside. So what do you think, is it possible that the US military might - just maybe - be capable of thinking up a counterstrategy that doesn't involve an assault into the teeth of his urban defenses? Why is that nobody learned anything from the last conflict? Most of the Gulf War opponents have conveniently forgotten that back then they were predicting huge losses - apparently expecting our military to replicate the Somme in southern Kuwait. Gimme a break.

There's actually several successful options for handling this "new" tactic, none of which involve a direct assault on his "castles". And not so coincidentally, many of these worked great 700 years ago in France.

1) Bribery: Most of the true Saddam loyalists will be gathered in two cities, Tikrit (his clan home) and Baghdad. Once the military commanders in the other cities are sealed off by our "siege troops", they will listen eagerly to any offer we make. Lots of easy slam dunks here.

2) Siege: Hey it worked then why not now? We allow any civilian who wants to leave to come out, and just wait for the inevitable collapse. Take out all the infrastructure that makes a modern city livable, and they'll have no alternative. Saddam's only "weapon" will be to try and portray this as cruel to the beleagured citizens, but that won't work. Propaganda only succeeds if it has an audience, and you can bet the US will seal off ALL communication between these cities and the outside world. Yes, there'll be refugees telling awful stories, but no pictures to feed the media. And without pictures, there's no outrage - just the facts of life in the modern world. Tack on some 24 hour psych warfare (the Noriega siege writ large) and it won't last that long anyway. Some general will figure out that a suicdal end alongside Hitler in his Bunker isn't the best career strategy, and that'll be the end of Saddam - and the War.

I'd be surprised if our total casualties crack triple digits. Game, set, match.

[Ramo]

I never said it was a good strategy.

2) Siege: Hey it worked then why not now? We allow any civilian who wants to leave to come out, and just wait for the inevitable collapse. Take out all the infrastructure that makes a modern city livable, and they'll have no alternative. Saddam's only "weapon" will be to try and portray this as cruel to the beleagured citizens, but that won't work. Propaganda only succeeds if it has an audience, and you can bet the US will seal off ALL communication between these cities and the outside world. Yes, there'll be refugees telling awful stories, but no pictures to feed the media. And without pictures, there's no outrage - just the facts of life in the modern world. Tack on some 24 hour psych warfare (the Noriega siege writ large) and it won't last that long anyway. Some general will figure out that a suicdal end alongside Hitler in his Bunker isn't the best career strategy, and that'll be the end of Saddam - and the War.

I'd be really suprised if Shrub et al. could get away with it, without facing some serious domestic opposition. Maybe the Dems might grow spines.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Serb
Black Hawk Down is stupid fairytale. I've almost throw up twice when I was watching it.

What part(s) constitute a 'stupid fairy tale'?