Coalition tactics - Post your critics here

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by DeathByTheSword
why are the coalition forces in such a hurry to make the same mistake as hitler did in Russia?

attacking without winter gear?

[Stuie]

This is more spin related, but why is it that when Iraqi military/paramilitary dress as civilians they are called "war criminals", but when the US military does the same (as they have been purported to have done in northern Iraq) they are called "special forces".

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Stuie
This is more spin related, but why is it that when Iraqi military/paramilitary dress as civilians they are called "war criminals", but when the US military does the same (as they have been purported to have done in northern Iraq) they are called "special forces".

Why? Because each side is a pack of two-faced liars. I suppose this is slightly less absurd than the US complaining that POWs are shown on television when they are operating a concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay. I'll bet if you asked any one of the Guantanamo prisoners whether they'd rather be on TV or in a concentration camp I bet you I'd know what they'd say.

[Frogman]

Baghdad will be ugly. I think every man, woman and child is a threat to our soldiers and occupation of that city will be a nightmare. This is butt ugly and we are going to have to kill a lot of civilians before this is over.

I'm afraid we have to go for the power and the water supplies to subdue the population. We have to get the civilian population streaming out of Baghdad before we can go in.

[Andrew1999]

Out Of Gas

SOUTHERN IRAQ (CNN) -- A U.S. military supply convoy carrying 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel made its way north from Kuwait Tuesday night toward coalition troops who were forced to halt their advance for lack of fuel.

U.S. supply lines stretch from forward units in southern Iraq, south toward Kuwait, Savidge reported. "Fuel is what makes all these vehicles and the machinery run," Savidge said. "They actually had to pause operations (Tuesday) and delay moving forward because fuel was running so low."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/...ply/index.html

Do we hope the the military is lying to us, or that it is incompotent? I'm genuinely torn...

[Frogman]

They weren't actually out of gas. They won't run less than half full so that they are always prepared for combat. Yeah, running your tanks til they're out of gas would be incompetant.

[Bosh]

Well obviously the planning is ****ed up because they're changing it as we speak. Before they were doing a mad dash to Baghdad and trying to bypass any resistance and now they're slowing down and mopping up.

Another mistake was not stomping Umm Qasr really really hard early on so that they'd have a port facility in Iraq with which to send in aid earlier than they'll be able to do now, which'd have good propaganda value.

[RGBVideo]

In the Iraq war it could be something else,

Erm, unlikely, but you may be correct. "Could".

like huge sandstorms.

No.

attacking without winter gear?

[Frogman]

by Boshko
Well obviously the planning is ****ed up because they're changing it as we speak. Before they were doing a mad dash to Baghdad and trying to bypass any resistance and now they're slowing down and mopping up.

Thats a stupid comment. Its well known and accepted that the best laid battle plan doesn't last past the first battle. Battle plans always have been and always will be fluid because you can never predict the enemies actions. We never guessed the Iraqi would have had soldiers dress as civilians and wave white flags to lure us into a couple of pot shots. They thought they could leave the urban areas alone but found out they couldn't so they changed the plan.

[Gatekeeper]

Tsk, tsk. Coalition troops have just got to stop eating Iraqi babies for dinner! What? It's true, says so on SaddamIsDaBomb.com! What?! How dare you tell me to double-check my sources! SaddamIsDaBomb.com is *the* Web site to go to for unfilitered, uncensored information with absolutely no slant!

Gatekeeper

(Do I really need a smilie type to indicate the nature of this post? I certainly hope not.)

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Agathon
What if the coalition "takes" Bagdhad and is faced with thousands of irregular guerilla combatants who are fanatically motivated and willing to take a shot at every white face. Hell, that'd be like Vietnam..

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always been under the impression the U.S. troops weren't all white, but, rather, a mixture of races? Do you know something I don't?

Also, I was under the impression that, technically, people in the Middle East were always considered to be "white."

Gatekeeper

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by carnide_

I tough along those lines to, but:
1) They are not going to kill everyone in Bagdad
2) A working Iraq TV is a deadly weapon against coalition forces, exactly by the same reason they need it after the victory.
So, its a need to stop it now, even if we are going to need it later.

They tried to destroy it. The bombing took it off-line for several hours, then it came back.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Agathon
Has anyone considered the possibility that ordinary Iraquis might see Saddam as the lesser of two evils? That certainly seems to be the prevailing attitude.

Indeed.

Thanks to Jaakko for pointing out this extremely informative thread over on SDMB.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Frogman
We never guessed the Iraqi would have had soldiers dress as civilians and wave white flags to lure us into a couple of pot shots.

Have the planners heard of Vietnam?

Originally posted by Frogman
They thought they could leave the urban areas alone but found out they couldn't so they changed the plan.

This is part of the staggering stupidity. Leaving the supply lines vulnerable to enemy attacks, in a country where you can't tell friends from foes?

Don't forget the people there are not pro-US, they are just anti-Saddam. There is a difference.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Instead of seiging Basra, I heard that the Brits will instead enter the city and fight the Iraqis in the streets. I think that's a big, big mistake.

So you'd prefer they solve the humanitarian crisis in the city by telepathy?