DUNNIGAN’S ROUNDUP
StrategyPage has this summary today:
August 8, 2003: In the last four weeks, attacks on American troops have declined from about 40 a day to about three dozen.
I’m not sure if that’s what he means to say here. “About 40” and “about three dozen” are very similar numbers! Does he mean “from 40 a day to about three dozen over four weeks”?
Defining what is an “attack” is sometimes difficult. US troops hearing nearby gunfire often discover they have come upon a crime being committed, or two groups of Iraqis settling a dispute. But the lethality of the attacks is going down. In the past week, there were four straight days without an American fatality.
American intelligence efforts have gathered a growing mountain of information on what’s going on among Iraqis and that has made it possible for troops to more effectively go after the Baath Party resistance. The same “battlefield internet” that was so useful doing the fighting is now enabling commanders to quickly share information on the situation inside Iraq. This has led to the rapid development of new tactics and understanding of the rapidly changing situation in Iraq. This high speed communication system was enormously popular during the war, and continued in use after the shooting stopped. The impact of these new communications tools has gone largely unnoticed in the post-war operations. One of the few visible signs of this commo situation is the talk of “keeping Saddam on the run.” This chase has been propelled by the masses of information gathered and the battlefield internet.
