Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Worried about the Russians?
On April 3, 2003, retired Col. Gen. Vladislav Achalov, a former Soviet deputy defense minister, said he had repeatedly visited Iraq just before the war and had inspected Baghdad’s “multiple defense rings.” He said they were “impossible to break straight away,” the Interfax-Military News Agency reported.
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“I believe the Americans have so far been unable to capture a single large locality because the Iraqis organized their defense using the combat experience of the Soviet army, obtained during World War II,” Achalov told Interfax-Military.
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“Units of the U.S. 3rd Mechanized Division and 1st Marine Division have been worn out in combat and marches through the desert. At present, they are simply incapable of launching an offensive,” he said, adding that storming Baghdad is “out of the question” until new forces arrive"
And then, just 7 days later...
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“I believe the Americans have so far been unable to capture a single large locality because the Iraqis organized their defense using the combat experience of the Soviet army, obtained during World War II,” Achalov told Interfax-Military.
…
“Units of the U.S. 3rd Mechanized Division and 1st Marine Division have been worn out in combat and marches through the desert. At present, they are simply incapable of launching an offensive,” he said, adding that storming Baghdad is “out of the question” until new forces arrive"
And then, just 7 days later...
on April 10, 2003, CNN reports:
"Saddam regime loses grip on Baghdad - Apr. 10, 2003: "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nearly a quarter-century of iron-fisted rule by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein crumbled dramatically Wednesday, sending jubilant Iraqis into the streets of Baghdad just three weeks after the U.S.-led coalition launched Operation Iraqi Freedom."
