“War Plan Orange”
The Belmont Club's “wretchard” has made an excellent post comparing the Iraqi efforts before and during the war to thw War Plan Orange retreat to the Philippine Bataan Penninsula at the beginning of World War II.
Faced with an invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam carried out his own sideslip maneuver into a redoubt. The Duelfer report notes that Saddam may have begun moving his WMD materials into Syria as the US vainly attempted to get UN authorization to topple his regime.
He continues his analysis of the tactics:
The major modern innovation of the Arab Way of War has been its radical new conception of defense in depth… Unlike Ushijima's Shuri Line with its tunnels in rock, the Arab redoubt was founded on establishing an underground of terror in the civilian populace. From the anonymity of crowds, they could emerge to attack the enemy from the rear as the Imperial Japanese Army once had done from tunnels. Faced with superior United States forces, this 21st century War Plan Orange was the natural choice of the Arab strategists. By denying the United States proof of its WMDs and grinding them down through occupation warfare—the one mode of combat at which they excelled, they had a reasonable hope of holding America until a politician willing to treat with them was elected into office.
Read the whole posting. It's great.
Josh Poulson
Posted Tuesday, Oct 26 2004 11:05 AM
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