Allied commanders are citing the "rapid progress" on the liberation of Iraq despite heavy fighting around Nasiriyah and Basra. Coalition forces are now advancing near Baghdad.
There’s a lot of grim-sounding news coming from various sources about heavy combat in these areas. Certainly this is not proving to be a cakewalk, and there are sizeable pockets of resistance.
Even with the heavy resistance, US and coalition forces are holding their own. We’ve managed to advance faster than nearly any army has in history. Our troops have been eliminating the pockets of resistance as they happen with only minimal casualties reported so far. Granted, this is not the situation we would like to be in, but no plan of attack ever survives contact with the enemy. Saddam Hussein has had months to prepare his forces and arrange groups like the Fedeyeen Saddam and the Special Republican Guard to halt the allied advance. At the same time, US and coalition forces represent the pinnacle of modern technology fused with the best Mark One Mod One grunt. Our soldiers not only have the best weapons technology ever created, but have the benefit of training and autonomy unmatched in history.
The fight will be tough, and the Iraqis aren’t making things easy for us. However, the evidence is pointing to the sucessful decapitation of the Iraqi regime. Intercepted phone and radio messages indicate that key members of the Iraqi leadership were injured or killed with the first attack on Baghdad.
More as it develops…
So much for the Iraqi soldiers tripping over themselves to surrender to the US and the civilian street dancing. At least one myth about that war has been dispelled, so conservatives can at least look at this war with a partial sense of reality now.