Essay question, how to capture Baghdad

Saddam hasn't been seen in public for about 4 years according to THC's "Why Can't We Kill Saddam" (or whatever it was titled) presentation last night .

He may be long dead or tipping pina colodas in Libya after having set up a Wizard of Oz type caretaker organization.

But to your question:

We don't need to capture Baghdad. We just need to lay seige on it and cut it off from the rest of the country. IMO, it won't take long before Saddam, Inc., collapses from within.

I recall reading somewhere that they didn't intend to capture the whole city, just the critical infrastructural pieces of it.

I also read that they don't intend to blow up the classic targets, bridges, the whole electric grid and so forth so as not to alienate the population and enhance the recovery...but I'll wager, since our guys aren't stupid, that plan B has those gps coords locked in and ready to roll.

Strategy sound perhaps a bit like Mogadishu....yuk.

(in the middle of reading black hawk down, so my head's in that scenario, and thus the parallel might not be legit)

Baghdad has lots of AAA. Helicopters and paratroopers don't react well to large caliber anti-aircraft guns.

Lay hands on a Trident sub.

Fire half of the missle load, all warheads targeted for the Baghdad area.

Land on the resulting parking lot, if it seems necessary, otherwise, "Problems solved, opportunities gained"!

Somebody please explain why, if we really must do a war, we are screwing around with these people.

#1 Bomb the the president palace and royal palaces.

#2 Take out the AAA guns.

#3 take the communication center

#4 take out the planes and airports.

#5 take out the power plants.

#6 take out army bases and ammo dumps.

#7 Send helicopters to start taking out tanks and men in the city.

#8 Send out the planes to hunt for tanks and men.

#9 Then paratrooper men to take control of the international airport and the other 2 outer airports.

#10 Send in men to get the airport up and running.

#11 The airport will be are base for men and suppies.

#12 Start to surround the city.

#13 After all the suppies come in start moving in slow!!

#14 PUT OUT 1 MILLION DOLLARS REWARD FOR SADDEM HEAD!!


Commard and Conquer junkie

parachute about 100 saddam look-alikes down onto the town..late late at nite and at the same time drop leaflets in a nearby area saying"free shishkabob-10 miles away". it would be mass confusion at its best.add some laughing gas and there you are.

Threaten to airdrop Rosie O'Donnell and Phil Donahue on them.

Why don't we dam up that river and flood them out?
After they evacuate, we could just level the place.

Wait, isn't Bagdad one of the seven wonders or something?
We may need a special permit and environmental documents.
Damn!

Did they ever finish the Neutron bomb?
Leaves the city, clears out the infestation.

I don't see a reason to lose even one soldier to protect the people of Iraq or they petty dictator.

Nuke them till they glow and shoot them in the dark!! Problem Solved!

Man...I thought I was a Hawk.

Well, is the goal to occupy the city or just kill Hussein? Not that either would be simple. Occupying a city without a significant number of civilian and friendly casualties is probably impossible. You can't use much artillery or air support on a city without killing lots of civvies. And without that supporting fire, you'll lose a lot more friendly troops. Militarily, the safest way to take the city would be to firebomb it into oblivion, and then march troops in using generous quantities of high explosive to kill anything that moves in the rubble. 'Course, that results in a whole ton of civilian casualties. If the goal is to just kill Hussein, you'd need some really good intel, which we may or may not have.

Look at the photo and tell me how badly YOU would want to go in there for some door to door action

http://terraserver.com/v5image.asp?image_guid={55DC3269-7563-11D5-999B-00508B8FA202}&image_scale=15

Thanks www.Terraserver.com
(Link won't take) Look up Baghdad IZ

Not gonna be pretty.
Gonna be nasty.
Plenty of hurtin.
Their hometown.
They know the alleys, shortcuts and hideyholes.

Liberate the north and south peoples, arm em, set up government for/with em, control the oilfields, rivers, take out airfields, missles/AAA, communication centers, key road choke points...

Get ready for the long term and tell the boys back home the blank is really gonna hit the fan once the Islamic Bad Boyz get into action and their little cells wake up and fire up OUR homeland.

Is that what ya mean?

Adios

One aircraft. One bomb.

Peace follows victory, not land wars in Asia.