Gotcher Crow Right Here -

Gotcher Crow Right Here - A month ago, this list (and the local left in general) was all abuzz about what a bad idea this war was going to be.

Two weeks ago, the "Q" word - quagmire - was everywhere on this mailing list. The Administration was jeered as shortsighted, inept, presiding over a plan that was doomed to quagmire and stalemate at the very least. The plan was derided for having only one heavy division, requiring that we empty the US Army wholesale into an endless morass. Our diplomacy was dinged for failing to open a second front (while the French interference in the Turkish parliamentary process went unacknowedged). The "V" word - Vietnam - was broached with a straight face.

Some of us said "wait and see".

We waited. Let's see:

Most of Baghdad has poured into the streets to greet our troops. Foreign mercenaries and volunteers are being turned in wholesale by angry Iraqis.

Today, the Rumsfeld/Franks operational plan for taking Iraq is being complemented by the experts. The Dash to Baghdad is already being hailed as one of the great armored advances under fire in history:

The stunning advance, at a cost of fewer than 10 U.S. combat deaths, would silence complaints by television generals, and even some officers in the field, that the war was being mismanaged. It also would provoke another kind of talk.

"The U.S. advance on Baghdad is something that military historians and academics will pore over in great detail for many years to come," British Air Marshal Brian Burridge said Monday. "They will examine the dexterity, the audacity and the sheer brilliance of how the U.S. put their plan into effect."

Instead of getting bogged down in pitched battles for cities along the road to Baghdad, U.S. forces raced directly to their main objective, pausing to fight only when given the chance to exact a heavy toll on the Iraqis. " Hey - wasn't that one of the things our plan was getting beaten up over two weeks ago?

Well?

Three weeks. Fewer casualties than the 1991 Gulf War or the 1982 Falklands War. Fewer casualties than the Second Battalion of the 330th Infantry Regiment suffered in *one week* in the Hürtgen Forest in 1944 (from a book I ghostwrote a while ago) advancing two miles.

No, the war's not over. There is some heavy skirmishing going on; according to some reports, much of the opposition is coming from foreigners and Ba'ath hardliners. But you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The "Arab Street" - at least, the one in Baghdad - is voting with its feet on its opinion of the US liberation of their country, with jubilation on the streets that looks even more intense than the fall of the Berlin Wall (another event that broke many a lefty heart).

Given the abuse that the Administration - and those of us who supported the liberation of Iraq - took on this mailing list, I think it's only appropriate to mention these things.

See you on V-I day!

I'm going to mosey down to the Marshall-Lake Bridge and see how things are going. I'll report later.

Posted by Mitch at April 9, 2003 02:49 PM