War Fare

In war, expect the unexpected. That just about sums up week one of America''s war against Iraq. Before it started, the war was widely projected as a short and swift, not to mention surgical, affair. Eight days later, the evidence is mostly to the contrary.
While the civilian casualties of the war are as yet limited, the general suffering is not. And the hopes of a quick end to the conflict have all but evaporated. The belief that the invasion will be met by wildly cheering Iraqis, grateful to be rid of Saddam''s tyranny, too has been belied. Aside from sporadic shots of children dancing on the streets of small towns in southern Iraq, there is little to suggest that the population is anything other than sullen. Pentagon''s "shock and awe" tactics might have left the ordinary Iraqi numbed and cowering, but their military objective — intimidating Saddam into submission — has not been realised. The Iraqi leadership continues to be defiant and, one has to admit, remarkably composed. Saddam''s command and control system remains largely in tact and so does, on the face of it, the morale of his men. Iraq is doubtless battered and bruised, but it appears determined to fight.
Questions have also arisen about why the Iraqi dictator, despite being relentlessly targeted, has not as yet unleashed his doomsday arsenal. Nor have the Americans produced any concrete proof that one exists. Given that weapons of mass destruction formed the core of America''s justification for the war — even in the absence of a UN Security Council resolution, it is a PR embarrassment too. But the most surprising of all has been the level of resistance encountered by the invading forces. Southern Iraq was a terrain that the allied forces were expected to secure easily, thanks to "massive" local disaffection against Saddam and the poor quality of Iraq''s fighting men and material. Despite the decision to skirt major cities and not get sucked into urban guerilla warfare, however, the forces are facing the prospect of a hand-to-hand combat in built-up space. The mood in the coalition camp has understandably turned sombre, with many commanders openly admitting that they hadn''t expected the enemy to fight so hard. The frenetic scramble to reach Baghdad has meanwhile left the troops upfront with a long supply line, vulnerable to hit-and-run Iraqi attacks. All in all, "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is faced with more uncertainty at the end of week one, than when it began.