DUNNIGAN’S ROUNDUP
StrategyPage summarizes yesterdays military news about Iraq. A lot happened, almost all of it good:
The troops entered the two presidential palace compounds and killed hundreds of Iraqi troops who resisted. Scores of unarmed Iraqi troops could be seen fleeing on foot. All this took place across the river from the hotel where foreign journalists stay. The raid, in effect, went off right in front of the foreign reporters cameras. Coalition spokesmen described the operation as a raid, not an occupation of the center of the city. Some commandos were seen going into Iraqi occupied buildings, indicating that the raid has some specific objectives beyond a show of force and demonstration that coalition forces can go wherever they want in Baghdad. American soldiers and reporters were allowed to wander through the luxurious rooms of the palaces. Yesterday’s raid resulted in only one American soldier killed, and over a thousand dead Iraqis. So today’s raid also serves to kill off those Iraqis who are willing to resist. As was shown in southern Iraq, the number of Iraqis willing to fight is limited. When you kill most of them, things quiet down and Saddam’s crowd is no longer in control. The raid had the element of surprise, coming early in the morning and catching most Iraqi troops by surprise. While the raid was going on, reporters were in the nearby Information Ministry. With the sounds of artillery and gunfire in the background, the Minister of Information assured everyone that the American forces downtown had been destroyed.
Read it all. Unless you’ve been glued to the television all weekend, and maybe even then, you’ve missed something.
