US and coalition forces have been pounding the "elite Republican Guard" from land and air. The Pentagon estimates that half of the Republican Guard’s Medina Division have been wiped out by protracted coalition bombing.
Despite the media, which seems jumping to declare this war a Vietnam-style "quagmire", it is clear that coalition forces are making significant progress. We’re doing exactly what I had predicted we’d do. We’re not overly concerned about capturing the cities quite yet – instead using our unchallenged air superiority and overwhelming firepower to slowly sap the fighting abilities of the Iraqi military.
The Pentagon also notes that there has been no real evidence that Saddam Hussein or his sons are in fact alive, other than videos on Iraqi TV that could have been made months ago. Certainly the Iraqis are not fighting in an organized way. The Iraqis have slowed our long supply lines, but they haven’t been able to disrupt them entirely. (In fact, even in a situation as desperate as Khe Sanh in the Vietnam war, US airlift craft were able to drop supplies in to allow our soldiers to hold out for days while inflicting massive damage on the enemy.)
Given the situation of going into a nation that has had months to prepare for invasion and is using the most despicable tactics of assymetrical warfare, this war is anything but a quagmire. Rather it is the slow process of destroying the Iraqi military by attrition while preserving as many civilian lives as possible. Just as the media falsely reported that Afghanistan was a quagmire that would humble US forces, Iraq is proving to be another example of how US military technology, training, and discipline is the best in the world.
