Stardate 20020215.1611

(On Screen): Patrick Phillips makes a good point: there's an entirely different way that Iraq can play it and that is to force all fighting to take place in cities. If they give up the countryside and place all their troops in cities, then it presents us with a political problem.

City fighting is a bitch. Clearing dedicated infantry out of houses is slow and dangerous and it always results in a huge civilian casualty count, because the preferred weapon is the hand grenade. (You pitch two in to each building just before entering to see if anything is inside. More will be used going up and down stairs and into rooms inside the building.)

If Iraq hides its infantry in places like Basrah and Baghdad, then we are largely prevented from using air power against them and would be forced to take them on in situations where most of our advantages are nullified. In that case, most of my previous scenario becomes obsolete and the war would play out entirely differently.