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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (19756)	3/29/2003 6:09:40 PM
From: Edscharp	Respond to of 23908

John, "I believe 80% of the Baghdad people have left the city" I don't know if your speculation is true or not, but I would argue it is irrelevant. I don't believe the coalition will be entering Baghdad. The better strategy is to surround Baghdad and allow civilians who wish to leave the opportunity to do so. This will be accompanied with a very high profile public relations effort by the coalition that will offer food, water and shelter (probably a tent city) to any non-combatant who wishes to leave Baghdad. It doesn't matter at all that Saddam Hussein may hold-out for months or even years. While he is holding-out the coalition will be busy building a new Iraqi government and mopping up resistance elsewhere. Our troops are going to be there for a year or two anyway. Indeed, I would suggest that allowing Hussein to continue his life for a while longer and the threat he represents could only benefit the coalition's efforts to find common cause with Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious population. After a few weeks or months of holding-out Hussein's ministers and generals will begin to perceive the futility of their cause. They will slowly come to understand that they are in a no-hope no-win situation. Hussein's plan to thwart the coalition by inflicting large-scale casualties will come to naught. Regime change becomes a fait accompli. I believe this was one possible scenario foreseen in the original U.S. plan of operations.