- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.
forces are gearing up for an intense battle for Baghdad, which could become
the first massive urban battle by American ground troops since the bloody
1968 battle for Hue in the Vietnam War.
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- Pentagon officials call Baghdad the "center of gravity"
for President Saddam Hussein's government, saying that capturing the city
would "break the back" of Saddam's rule and would be instrumental
in erasing resistance elsewhere in the country.
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- Military analysts said on Thursday a major battle pitting
the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division and other U.S. forces against Iraqi
Republican Guard divisions positioned to defend Baghdad could come this
weekend south of the capital.
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- Assuming these Republican Guard divisions are subdued,
U.S. forces then may set their sights on taking Baghdad.
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- The Pentagon has not revealed how U.S. forces plan to
capture Baghdad after they hurdle defenders outside the city.
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- Some analysts foresee a direct assault with heavy armor
and troops from the 3rd Infantry Division, helicopter-borne troops from
the Army's 101st Airborne Division and special operations forces. Others
favor the more cautious approach of isolating Baghdad and launching selective
operations.
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- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. troops have
driven within 50 miles of Baghdad in the week-old war.
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- "They now have to face the more difficult forces,
the Republican Guard, and then the next phase after they (the Iraqi defenders)
have been destroyed or surrender will be to deal with Baghdad," Rumsfeld
told a Senate hearing on Thursday.
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- Rumsfeld said he expected some Iraqis inside Baghdad,
including Shi'ite Muslims repressed by Saddam, to assist in taking the
city, but did not reveal the nature of this help.
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- Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
added that U.S. forces which have been attacking Republican Guard divisions
around Baghdad through the air are "having some effect, we think,
in degrading their combat capability."
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- "And at some point, at a time of our choosing, we
will engage them. We'll see what kind of fight they have," he said.
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- ECHOES OF VIETNAM Lexington Institute analyst Loren Thompson
said the U.S. military has not engaged in a major urban ground battle since
the month-long struggle to retake Vietnam's northern provincial city of
Hue during the 1968 Tet offensive.
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- "Although it was a victory for us, it didn't feel
like one at the time. The city was devastated and the amount of civilian
suffering was extensive," Thompson said.
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- In Hue, about 2,500 U.S. Marines defeated more than 10,000
entrenched enemy troops to take the city of 140,000 people.
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- The scale of an assault on Baghdad would dwarf that fight.
Baghdad is a city of about 5 million people, and it could have tens of
thousands of entrenched defenders.
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- Thompson said Republican Guard forces may make a stand
against the U.S. invasion force on the road to Baghdad this weekend, and
predicted that these defenders would be "largely wiped out" in
part because of the unfettered ability of U.S. forces to hit them from
the air. Thompson said Iraqi forces may try to use chemical weapons in
this battle.
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- He said the remnants of the Iraqi forces may retreat
into Baghdad to join the Special Republican Guard -- the best equipped
and trained element of the Iraqi military and the one thought to be most
loyal to Saddam -- in defending Baghdad.
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- "Barring some lucky attack on Saddam and the rest
of his inner circle, we'll have to go in there after them," he said.
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- Thompson predicted that the battle to take Baghdad after
the Republican Guard is beaten south of the city would last five to six
days. He said casualties -- particularly civilian casualties -- would be
considerably greater than those incurred up to this point of the war.
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- "If we want to win this war quickly and decisively,
we're going to have to be willing to accept casualties, not only among
civilians but among our own forces," Thompson said.
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- Retired U.S. Army Gen. William Nash, who commanded an
armored brigade in the 1991 Gulf War and now is an analyst with the Council
on Foreign Relations, said a frontal assault on Baghdad may not be the
best strategy.
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- "If we isolate Baghdad and cut off communications,
then Saddam becomes the mayor of Baghdad instead of the ruler of Iraq.
And we could get an awful lot done while we still take our time with him,"
Nash said.
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