3,000 U.S. Bombs, Missiles Would Quickly Hit Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the U.S. war plan for Iraq, more than 3,000 guided bombs and missiles would rip military and leadership targets in the first 48 hours, softening the way for a two-pronged ground attack to topple President Saddam Hussein's government, defense officials said on Sunday....

www.reuters.com...;jsessionid=WCFAUBQIVPZVUCRBAEZSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=2154137

Nearly 700 pinpoint Tomahawk cruise missiles alone would be launched by warships and heavy bombers in the opening two days in high-tech strikes 10 times more potent than those that opened the 1991 Gulf War, the military and civilian officials told Reuters.

To minimize civilian casualties and immediately isolate Saddam from his military, the air plan, first reported by The New York Times on Sunday, would rely far more on all-weather, satellite-guided bombs than was done in the Gulf War.

"If President Bush makes a decision to go, Iraq's military and the civilian leadership will know it quickly in spades," said one U.S. official. "It will also be clear that we are not going after the man on the street."

The air campaign would be carried out by nearly 600 Air Force and Navy attack, radar-jamming and support planes flying from bases in the Gulf region and elsewhere and from four or five U.S. aircraft carriers and a British carrier. Those aircraft would include stealthy, batwing B-2 bombers.

The steady leaking of details from the war plan comes as the United States is ratcheting up pressure for Saddam to leave the country peacefully and take haven elsewhere to pave the way for disarmament and establishment of a democratic government in Baghdad.

PLANNING FOR SHOCK EFFECT

The plan is for the air war to last less than a week and to cause such shock that the Iraqi military would collapse, prompting the surrender of thousands of troops. A two-pronged ground offensive from Kuwait and Turkey would begin simultaneously or within days of the start of the air assault.

Bombing targets would include military headquarters, bases and communications throughout the country as well as Saddam's palaces and other civilian leadership centers.

At the same time, elite U.S. Army Rangers and other Special Operations forces along with airborne assault troops are expected to seize airfields and other targets deep inside Iraq. Elite British and Australian troops could join that effort.

Officials said the shock of fast and intense air and ground assaults would be aimed at preventing the use of chemical and biological weapons by Iraq, cutting off the retreat of Iraq's military toward Baghdad and cities for potentially-bloody urban warfare and securing oil fields from destruction by Saddam himself.

"The Iraqi military is a shadow of what it was before the Gulf War, although there is concern about chemical and biological weapons," one defense official told Reuters. "One would hope to quickly break the enemy's will to fight."

U.S. troops storming into Iraq from Kuwait and Turkey could then offer surrendering Iraqi troops sanctuary under guard.

American and British warplanes have been peppering southern Iraq with millions of leaflets in the past month urging that the military and civilian population abandon support of Saddam.

OVER 100,000 U.S. TROOPS NOW IN GULF

Bush, calling for disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, says he is ready to use military force against Saddam, with or without U.N. backing.

U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday that a new year's surge of American troops from the United States and Europe had already put 100,000 troops in the region and that the figure could be near 180,000 by late February.

About 30,000 American troops -- most of them Navy and Air Force personnel -- were in the Gulf at the end of last year. But, under orders from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, tens of thousands of soldiers from three Army divisions and two Marine Expeditionary Forces have been flowing there since early January.

The Times, quoting Pentagon military and civilian officials, said the Army's Third Infantry Division and a sizable contingent of Marines would be assigned to punch north from Kuwait, while a force spearheaded by the Fourth Infantry Division would move south from Turkey.

Remotely piloted spy planes, widely used in the war in Afghanistan, would play an important role in the war.

Air Force officials confirmed the Times report that the service had already stockpiled nearly 7,000 all-weather satellite-guided bombs, called Joint Direct Attack Munitions, in the Gulf region for any extended air campaign.

More than 3,000 laser-guided bombs, similar to those used during the Gulf War, are also ready, the officials said. Unlike satellite-guided bombs, use of those weapons can be hampered by heavy cloud cover and darkness.


[Edited on 2-2-2003 by Midnight Mutilator]

i belive it they gotta be sure to get all WMD sites cuz if they miss one

the american ppl don't have much tolerance for casualties and they wudn't like to flip on the tv and hear on CNN that a battlion of 800 men was killed by a missile filled with mustard gas

...not that they're gonna flip on the TV and hear that a few thousand Iraqi men, women and children got creamed by some of those 3,000 guided bombs and missiles. How many 'Military' and 'Leadership' targets are there?? 1000?? 2000? 3000??

But wait...there are plans to minimise civilian casualties...yeah...ah ha...believing that one...

...this war is going to last more than a week...its going to last years, decades, maybe even centuries...for ultimately the enemy resides in the minds of men...and blowing the crap outa a butt-load of innocents is just going to spur on the next bunch of chickens who will be coming home to roost soon enough...

couldn't agree more.

That;s a bit assumptive, Alien. Oh, I'm sure Hussein, if he survives, will hate us even more, but let's wait and see how effective they are at minimizing civilian casualties, and let's wait and see if the dissidents are correct when they say that the Iraq population wants to be free of Hussein.

Whatever you blow, don't blow Texaco....

"but let's wait and see how effective they are at minimizing civilian casualties, and let's wait and see if the dissidents are correct when they say that the Iraq population wants to be free of Hussein."

I would have thought that these questions would have been asked and answered to the best of our ability before we started carpet bombing them.

One would have suspected a government concerned with these issues to have been massively vocal on the subject of civillian casualties and Iraqs desire to be free of saddam, this would have been backed up with a huge amount of hard evidence and plenty of demonstrable goals for the rebuilding of Iraq society.

strangely though, with the exception of a lot of rhetoric the US seems to have been rather quiet about the practical aspects of what they're about to do.

Yes, it's called 'Shock & Awe', and I posted the thread last week! xmb.abovetopsecret.com...

I'll make the obvious point again: Not the desert between Kuwait & Iraq, it's Bagdhad. An Urban theater is smaller & denser. Will a dozen missiles be launched at the same exact coordinates, or will you have the more logical 'spread'?
If you look at it logically, void of being 'for' or 'against', you either are going to be hitting mostly civilian targets OR you are going to be extremely inefficent with great redundancy/overkill of a handful of targets. Of the latter, I don't think they are going to bomb for the sole sake of crater creation.

We'll have this war, because Saddam will never surround. That's a fact. But when this war will be over, we'll see how Irakians are acting and what they will say about Saddam and what he did to Irak and his population. Be ready to see and hear many horrors, like we saw after the WW2.

I bet that the Irakians will not forget those who were crying and shouting, in Occident, " don't do war to Saddam ".

Because " don't do war to Saddam " mean " let the Irakians starving & dieing in the Saddam's hands ".

I'm not quite sure where your getting your information UP but as far as I was aware one usually goes to war after the atrocitys have been clearly proven and the solution decided, not before.

What do you think Bout Time that Saddam is going to cram his entire military in Baghdad. From the way you are talking it doesn't sound like you understand the art of warfare at all.
Also in your thread ' Shock and Awe ', you don't seem to have read your links. Because it doesn't say they are going to drop 800 weapons in the first 2 days on Baghdad, it says IRAQ, there is a enourmaous difference. Stop twisting the facts into your own BULL#.

Phoenix:
You've read all these posts with links to the military objective of destroying their infrastructure and water supply. Given the fact that it's a secular/urban culture, not a self sufficient agro-culture, where are they going to be getting sustenance from?!?! Everything blown to hell, no water, a clean up sweep by the military......and they won't be starving during this time!?! They aren't going to sacrifice anyone to feed the Iraqis until it's safe. And afterwards, you'll have refugee camps in their own country; won't be many apartment buildings standing to go back and habitate.

Originally posted by Lupe_101
I'm not quite sure where your getting your information UP but as far as I was aware one usually goes to war after the atrocitys have been clearly proven and the solution decided, not before.

You right Lupe. That's why many million peoples have been killed in Hitler death camps and on many WW2 battlefields. Because many peoples were thinking like you.

Bout Time, Irak will not look like Europe or Japan in 1945. And the USA will do all they can do to hit only military targets. The target is NOT the Irakians population,the target is Saddam and the soldiers who will fight.

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix
Bout Time, Irak will not look like Europe or Japan in 1945. And the USA will do all they can do to hit only military targets. The target is NOT the Irakians population,the target is Saddam and the soldiers who will fight.

You're right, it will look worse!
Yeah that's right, they'll "try". But at the end of the day, you'll have a high civilian death count & survivors with no where to turn for food and shelter till things settle down.

Originally posted by Bout Time

1) You're right, it will look worse!

2) Yeah that's right, they'll "try". But at the end of the day, you'll have a high civilian death count & survivors with no where to turn for food and shelter till things settle down.

1) You don't know what you write BT. That's clear that you never seen Europe ( especially Germany & Esatern Europe ) & Japan just after the WW2 !

2) You don't know it.You are just assuming.

You who knows everything, what's your solution to remove Saddam ? Sending him an e-mail ?

why exactly are you so desperate to remove him?

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix
The target is NOT the Irakians population,the target is Saddam and the soldiers who will fight ->!!!!BACK!!!!

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix
1) You don't know what you write BT. That's clear that you never seen Europe ( especially Germany & Esatern Europe ) & Japan just after the WW2 !

2) You don't know it.You are just assuming.

You who knows everything, what's your solution to remove Saddam ? Sending him an e-mail ?

1) I thought we were both in our 30's? You saw WWII Europe?

2) Of Course, we all are. I just think yours is a high fantasy perspective that fails to account for civilian death when factoring that all strikes are going to be North & South of the 'no fly' buffers. I'd like some consistent opinion from you: you damn them as cowards for hiding among civilian targets and NOW you say that just military targets will be hit.

Originally posted by Bout Time

1) I thought we were both in our 30's? You saw WWII Europe?

2) Of Course, we all are. I just think yours is a high fantasy perspective that fails to account for civilian death when factoring that all strikes are going to be North & South of the 'no fly' buffers. I'd like some consistent opinion from you: you damn them as cowards for hiding among civilian targets and NOW you say that just military targets will be hit.

1) Nope. Fortunately, I didn't see it " in live ". But I learned what happened. I saw the destructions, also, I visited Nazis Death Camps ! And my grand-parents gave me many explanations on that dark era, and what was going on during WW2.

And you BT ????

2) BT, take it like you want. But it's you who have to give a good explanation about what you want. You're allways writing " NO WAR ", but you never write any solution who will help to remove Saddam. What do you want to do ? Let's wait & see, after all, may be he'll die naturally ? Or may be he'll resigned ? Or may be he'll not use any WMD ? That's your opinion BT ? Just wait & see ????