Fallujah Iraq.

Lets all sit and play general. I hear rumors that we are going to "pacify" the city by the end of the year. Might be a fun thing to do here with all of the knowledge available.

How are we going to do it?

What weapons will be used?

Are there any maps available?

What are the Iraqis going to do? They have had a long time to prepare.

What will their preparations be?

Lets kick this around a bit and see if we can do a better job of defence and a better job of offence. Maybe we can :smok:

 

Here is a map of the Baghdad area. Fallujah is in square O6, printed as Al Fallujah.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_e ... c_1998.jpg

Do you think they can hold us off?

What will the price be?

 

Here is a map of Fallujah. Download it http://www.hiciraq.org/mapcentre/geogra ... /index.asp

 

Defence: blow the east bridge and try to cover the crossroads to the west as well as possible. Use the houses, try to get your hands on as many RPGs as possible.

Attack: don't wait!

 

Offense:

Surround the area with snipers. Anybody carrying a weapon becomes a casualty. Use infantry, backed with tanks, helos, and jets, to slice off a section at a time until they're backed into a corner. If they retreat to a mosque starve the idiots out, it takes a lot of food to feed 1000 martyrs. No negotiating, only surrender or death for defenders.

 

What about casualties? I would imagine they would be very high for the attacker. They have dug tunnels and fortified every house by now. There are IEDs on every street corner, in every wall. Mines, spider holes. What else? They know the city too, inside and out.

What will they hit back at us with?

 

Lots & lots of RPGs.
AA missiles to take out the choppers.
Booby traps by the dozen.
Maybe even the old Japanese trick of suicide anti-tank soldiers, sitting in a (covered) hole in the road with a load of explosives and a detonator.

 

Do we have what it takes for a seige? Remember that they will be hitting us in other cities when they figure out what we're doing. They have undoubtably layed in a lot of supplies, well protected underground. Their defence system is no doubt well developed also. They know the streets we don't. I think that their preparations will offset our technology.

If we lay seige or attack the casualties will be high, they have the advantage I would think.

 

Laying siege would cause least casualties among the coalition forces, but would be a media disaster.
1) It would take AGES
2) Think of all those photos of starving women & children, captioned "America did this"

I like the idea of having snipers tasked to kill anybody in the town with a weapon...
Maybe construct special 'sniper towers' in the outskirts, and use those scary big rifles with an effective range of a mile or two.

How about resurrecting the 'tunnel rats' idea, and have specialist squads to deploy in the sewer system (I assume there is one), or any other system of underground tunnels htey may have.

 

Personally, I favor carpet bombing the place with B-52s. Let the Stratofortresses visit the city a few times and it'll definitely be pacified.

 

Snipers won't solve the problem of tunnels. You can carry a gun, ammo, mines under those robes they wear.

We would pay dearly for an all out assault. Fallujahgrad.

 

"Nuke 'em 'til they glow"

 

That would be precedent that we would regret Greg. You think we have enemies now? The world would probably gang up on us. Too much of a threat.

 

Yes, and besides, nukes are unnecessary. Conventional bombs are all that would be needed.

 

Bombs up to a point. It can worsen the situation in the long run all kinds of places to hide. Civilian casualties would be horrendous.

We need 5 times the manpower we have now and put a cordon around the city, one huge fully manned trench system. I mean fully manned, a grunt every 3 feet all the way around the city. People can come out but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, NOT EVEN A RAT FOR THEM TO EAT, goes in.

They'll come out one way or another.

 

I refer you to my earlier post...

 

Yeah, you know, like Dresden.
1) The great majority of casualties of such an attack would be innocent women, children and other non-combatants. Media anyone?
2) Bombing the city would cause flows of homeless people to appear, interfering with operations, adding another problem for the occupation forces - providing shelter. Another media disaster for the US.
3) As seen on Monte Cassino, bombing the city will make it an excellent fortress with lots of places to hide fo small teams of infantry. Exactly the way these rebels will fight. You're making it easier for them!

 

I suggest America lays siege to the city and wait for her to gain the support of the rest of Iraq. Once the insurrection has lost its appeal, America will be able to use more heavy-handed tactics on fallujah and possibly employ the help of the Iraqi army.

 

Roel, just how many genuine noncombatants do you think are still in the city by now?

 

My info says there is quite a few. 95% of the original population is there. Where are they going to go? When do you hear anything about refugees.