When will the USA play its trump card?

[Dry Rot]

US Army has kept its very best troops in Kuwait namely the 101st Airborne, ostensibly getting its equipment ready.

I wonder when, where and how they will be used?

Perhaps the next monlight night (4 April?)?

Parachuting into the north above Baghdad? Or into Baghdad itself?

101st Airborne vs Medina Republican Guards looks like an interesting match-up.

 

[Docker_Brat]

You make it sound like Essendon V Collingwood on ANZAC day.

 

[Dr.Grouse]

Why don't you just get yourself a nice shoot-em-up computer game to play with, Rotter?

 

[Dry Rot]

This game comes on a much bigger screen.

But seriuosly, believe it or not, for those of us with an interest in military history, tactics are quite interesting.

Just for the record, I hoped this would be over real quick with minimum casualties.

I know more about the battle of Stalingrad than most posters here, and I hope to God for everyone's sake it doesn't come to that with street fighting in Baghdad.

The scary thing is that there are a few parallels here.

 

[Diego]

Originally posted by Dr.Grouse
Why don't you just get yourself a nice shoot-em-up computer game to play with, Rotter?

Why dont you get yourself a job and stop leeching of tax payers money and then winge about it.

 

[Wicked Lester]

It does pose an interesting scenario though.

A drop of the 101st into the heart of Baghdad would be a high risk strategy. The Coalition has shown a willingness however to use surprise tactics so far.

Perhaps they will be deposited in Baghdad along with Iraqi resistance fighters. Weren't there several thousand Iraqi rebels being trained in Hungary (?). Put them in the middle of Baghdad to stir up an uprising with the direct support of the 101st Airborne?

Its an interesting theory, though very high risk. But then again whichever way the battle for Baghdad plays out is going to be high risk, so maybe they'll try it.

 

[Slax]

A popular uprising is actually not what the military want. It means that instread of only the Iraqi army they also have the uprising to worry about and will make it incredibly difficult to install a new government after the have killed Saddam.

 

[Mead]

101st is going into northern iraq as originally planned, by the sounds of it.

I don't think the US would risk a large scale airborne assault over baghdad. Airborne troops, no matter how good, always get butchered by tanks, and even with TOW missiles and whatnot, an airborne division would sustain pretty high casualties. Despite the factor of surprise, paratroopers would still be outnumbered and stuck in the middle of a messy urban battle- precisely the sort of thing the US is trying to avoid.

What is more likely is a possible airdrop between guard positions in the suburbs and baghdad proper, timed exactly when the bulk of allied forces are engaging the divisions on the outskirts of baghdad. That way, the paratroopers would cut off forces fleeing back into the city.

Once most of Iraq has been secured and the allies are just left with what to do with Baghdad, I think you'll see a hands off style strategy in the same way they're approaching Basra. They'll surround the city, wait up, and send in small scale incursions, possibly airborne special forces with helicopter extractions, targeted at capturing or killing specific iraqi officials, or freeing POWs or whatever, in an attempt to destabilize things and encourage revolt.

 

[Dr.Grouse]

Originally posted by Frosties_Flank
Why dont you get yourself a job and stop leeching of tax payers money and then winge about it.

I'm glad you put the winkie in there, FF.

For a while there I thought you were serious

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Originally posted by Dr.Grouse
I'm glad you put the winkie in there, FF.

Don't particularly want to know where FF puts his winkie actually.