Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Condor who wrote (89231)	4/2/2003 3:35:48 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Clint, Arnold, and all the rest, Condor. Saddam's worst nightmare. If he doesn't come up with something new, we will be visiting "Beautiful Downtown Baghdad" very shortly. CNN:(Clip) RODGERS: All day long, we've been traveling with the 7th Cavalry in the general direction of Baghdad. All day long, we've seen this mighty army rolling in the direction of Baghdad. At one point on the horizon, we saw this huge convoy of trucks and fighting vehicles stretching as far as you could see, perhaps 10 miles in either direction along the horizon. Earlier in the day, Army sources tell CNN, the 1st and 3rd brigades took the Iraqi town of Karbala with very little effort. The 1st Brigade rolled through firing, there were a few tanks, and it had no trouble securing the town immediately. The 3rd Brigade took over after that and has now secured the Iraqi town of Karbala. There was supposed to be a Republican Guard unit there. If it was, it did not put up much of a fight. Throughout the day, we have seen over 100 Iraqi prisoners of war taken and more than a few Iraqi soldiers dead along the road. A few minutes ago, the 7th Cavalry Apache troop, with which I'm traveling, across a big field, probably within radius of 25 miles of Baghdad, came across an Iraqi anti-aircraft unit. There were three or four guns, 20 millimeter, old Soviet vintage. Immediately, the 7th Cavalry opened up with tank fire and mortars, took them out and killed probably 20 Iraqis. When some of the Iraqis fled for a farmhouse moments ago, the Army just opened up with 25-millimeter cannon and destroyed whatever was left of that Iraqi anti-aircraft unit. It's been a very busy day. There are elements of the 7th Cavalry now probably within a 25-mile radius of Baghdad and there are elements of the 3rd Infantry Division, which are probably even closer than that. COSTELLO: As the troops got closer to Baghdad, it was thought that Saddam's best soldiers would be there, but you say this has been easier than expected, if I could put it in those terms? RODGERS: Army sources told us that the Air Force has so badly degraded the Medina division, just south of Baghdad, that other units, other divisions, have had to be folded into it. There had to be a consolidation of the Iraqi units, so badly have they been hammered. As I say, there is this huge army rolling in the general direction of Baghdad. We've seen fighting all across a broad front earlier in the day. Last night in Karbala there was an enormous American bombing of that area and artillery. Again, the Iraqis, if they're standing and fighting, aren't making much of a fight of it at this point. It may get worse when they get closer to Baghdad, but again heavy Air Force bombing day after day appears to have, to use the army's word, attrited, that is to say , badly degraded the units which are supposed to be defending Baghdad. What we're seeing here is essentially pockets of resistance, but nothing overly serious. cnn.com