The Main Thrusts
Here are the main thrusts of the war so far. You can find the cities I’m talking about on this map.
1. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and British forces will probably end up in Basra, a major city in south-eastern Iraq. They’ve currently taken the port of Umm Qasr about 20 miles south-east of Basra. They’ve also taken the key oilfields nearby. The oil well fires may look dramatic on TV; but only a few wells out of hundreds have been successfully set on fire. And you can bet the fires will be quickly contained by the specialists who’re moving with our troops.
2. The 3rd Infantry Division is racing across the desert towards Baghdad. This is where the footage of tanks on the move across the desert is coming from. (It must be quite a sight to see hundreds of M1A1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles cutting a broad swath across the desert in a 20 mile “wave of steel.” Unfortunately we probably won’t see such dramatic footage, but will keep getting a worm’s eye view from one of the vehicles, since that’s where the TV crews are.) These forces have run up against their first serious resistance at Nassiriya, which is a crossing on the Euphrates river about 200 miles south-east of Baghdad. (By “serious resistance” I mean Iraqi units that do shoot back. I’m not implying that these Iraqi units will actually provide serious resistance to our forces.)
3. Special forces are occupying airfields in the west and, perhaps, the north as well. They’ve taken airfields in the west called H-2 and H-3, thereby hindering the Iraqis’ ability to launch Scuds at Israel. These airfields will serve as bases of operations. Troops, tanks and supplies can be flown in to create new problems for the Iraqi military.
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