Interesting to see how the "war efficiency" competition goes in Iraq. The UK forces in Basra get a warm write up in the WT.
washingtontimes.com
[but it's also about SH regime suppression too. The removal of an important fear factor imho. It's hard to beat the efficiency of the USA medic who shot and armed attacker, bandaged him, then placed him in a evacuation vehicle for hospital treatment.
Longer siege time= more casualties and suffering amongst civilians. Shorter time= higher risk of siege ending badly.
just my view pb]
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British tactics in Basra praised
By Paul Martin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
CAMP AS SALIYAH, Qatar — Coalition commanders have put together battle plans for Baghdad that they say draw heavily on the unorthodox but "very impressive" tactics adopted by British forces seeking the collapse of resistance in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. Top As U.S.-led forces made rapid progress toward the capital, a senior military official provided The Washington Times with a glimpse into the plan, soon after he emerged from a commander's briefing on its contents.
"In Baghdad, we will definitely use a lot of the effective techniques and utilize some of the larger strategic lessons we learned in the British efforts over Basra," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Basra has not yet fallen, with the British appearing to play a cat-and-mouse game with the enemy forces.
The British, with extensive experience handling the Northern Ireland problem, have proved adept at dealing with the Iraqi paramilitary forces, who at times have surprised U.S. forces elsewhere by behaving as terrorists rather than soldiers, he said.
Coalition commanders also are seeking to revamp the public relations campaign by analyzing why the British forces, albeit only a seventh of the number of U.S. personnel in the theater of war, apparently have avoided accidental killings of civilians.
Two examples of unusual yet successful soldiering in the past two days have drawn praise from U.S. Central Command operations chiefs and are being seen as models for capturing parts of Baghdad. The officials, however, acknowledge that the scale of the operation around the capital will be considerably greater.
British 7th Armored Brigade troops, known as the Desert Rats, deliberately allowed residents to loot a Ba'ath Party headquarters near Basra within minutes of the office's capture and search.
"Normally we would stop looting because it's a sign that things have got out of control and that law and order has broken down," said Capt. Alex Cartwright to reporters. "But in this case we decided that to allow it would send a powerful message: that we are in control now, not the Ba'ath Party."
In another incident, when an Iraqi colonel was fatally shot in his vehicle, British troops found a thick wad of local currency. Instead of handing it in to officers, the troops decided to dole the cash out to wide-eyed local youngsters, a monetary variant of candy handouts.
In general, the British appear more determined to link up with wary locals and have succeeded in recruiting many to run activities at the captured port of Umm Qasr.
"The British have given a very effective demonstration in Basra of proving to the Iraqi people that they were there to return the city back to the people, and Iraq to the Iraqi people — whether it was a house full of food or a Ba'ath Party [headquarters]," the senior military official said.
As part of their psychological warfare, the British troops mounted a powerful raid on a built-up area simply for a tank to flatten a large mural of Saddam Hussein. They have knocked out local transmitters and are broadcasting a simple message on British-run radio and loudspeakers: "This time we will not desert you," a reference to the 1991 Shi'ite uprising savagely put down by the regime when allied troops refused to intervene.
The military officer said the coalition forces would "continue communicating with the people of Baghdad that they know we are there for them for the long haul and that we will not stop until this regime falls."
The British role has been praised by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who called it "outstanding," and by the force commanders at briefings.
Gen. Robin Brims, commander of British land forces in Iraq, said, "We are imposing our will. At times resistance has been venomous, but not now."
The British believe that their experience of relatively low-intensity conflict and dealing with resentful locals and paramilitaries from Northern Ireland to the Balkans, East Timor and Sierra Leone has equipped them to handle the conquest of Basra. In a cat-and-mouse war of attrition that puts military and psychological pressures on the increasingly rattled defenders, the British are applying carefully limited, though at times highly lethal, force.
While tanks point their turrets toward the city, there is still a small gap in the front lines, indicating that Basra is not completely surrounded.
The seizure this weekend of a southern suburb of the city came in a lightning thrust by 600 Royal Marines, causing the larger force of defenders to flee without putting up much resistance.
The allies are loath to criticize their U.S. colleagues openly, but a British officer told Britain's Daily Mail, "The Americans ... are good at tank battles, but they're trying to fight one kind of war while the Iraqis are fighting another. That is what's hurting them."
He said U.S. generals are starting to look at the British forces "and ask themselves some hard questions."
"Quite frankly, the average British infantryman is far better. They're a tribe of feral monsters, but they're highly disciplined monsters. You don't want to get in their way," he said.
There is, however, one factor that is putting pressure on the British. They are aware that the delay in capturing Basra sets back other allied war plans.
Coalition commanders had hoped that a swift collapse of Basra, preferably though a popular uprising, would set the tone for revolt across the southern cities and towns where the Shi'ites are in the majority.
The capture of Basra will constitute a key victory over Iraqi forces across the country, Britain's top briefer in the area, Group Capt. Al Lockwood, said in an interview. "We hope this will encourage other towns and cities to rise up against this regime."
A major segment of Baghdad is inhabited almost entirely by Shi'ites — as is most of Basra — and Saddam loyalists are believed to have issued house-to-house warnings of dire consequences in the event of disloyalty.
"Our tactics are working," Capt. Lockwood said. "This could become a textbook example of how to take a city with more brains than brawn." |
