First off, some of this information is "borrowed" from some other Bloggers, who will be given credit where due:
Based on news reports and bloggers in the position to know, the "war plan" cooked up by the Secretary of Defense and his ilk walled for a brigade of the 3rd ID, an MEU, the 101st Airborne, the Brits, and air power only. This was based, according to Brad DeLong on wishful thinking and cost concerns by the White House, and taht the current force represents the worst case scenario.
So now we're moving in the 3rd Armored Cavalry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th ID, 3rd Cavalry, and maybe the 1st Armored. All of this means there is no reserve force available. This had led to the obvious questions from the media and backpedalling by the White House on the time table.
There's also been criticism from current and former generals of the whole mess, and despite Colin Powell's outburst, these guys do still have access to information, and they know just as much as he or Rumsfeld do about fighting wars.
So here we are with American and British soldiers in the field, with a bad war plan that has come apart, little or no "Shock and Awe", and some significant problems with a guerrilla war, courtesy of the Fedeyeen, who the Pentagon wants to declare illegal combatants. I guess this means that if we get invaded most of us will be illegal combatants, too. Bot that I approve of the Fedeyeen's tactics -- fake surrenders and executing prisoners is immoral, illegal, and just bad form.
The Fedeyeen issue has a variety of consequences. OUr advance has slown to a crawl, with the 3rd ID digging into the positions they've been in for three days, the Marines holding some bridges to the south, and neither having gotten resupply recently (according to MSNBC this morning). Of course supplies may be an issue, because our supply convoys are floating around without security detachments, and the field commanders are learning they do need to have flank and rear-area security in place after all, which reduces overall combat power to the front.
An it isn't like the Fedeyeen are a surpirse either, just that the intelligence reports they show up on were "discounted" by the Bush Administration. That's right, the chicken hawks decide that the intelligence reports didn't fit their world view, so more Americans ill end up wounded, killed, or captured.
Posted by Chris at March 27, 2003 08:42 AM