If those missions fail, however, coalition forces will not have the luxury of waiting for weeks while the last-ditch Iraqi defenses crumble. International public opinion would not countenance the suffering of Baghdad residents.
The marines, the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions have spent much of the past few months rehearsing urban warfare in mock towns made of plywood in Louisiana, California and the Kuwaiti desert. They learnt that it is not going to be easy. Projected casualties could be as high as 70 percent.
It would be the first time US forces have been involved in such intense urban warfare since the battle for Hue during the Tet offensive in Vietnam. It is not a happy memory, and if American soldiers have to clear Baghdad street by street, the Pentagon strategy will have failed to a significant degree. It has been a long time since the most powerful army in the history of the world took such a leap in the dark.
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