Someone missed the meeting.
Jul. 16th, 2003 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sisyphusshruggedU.S. troops are facing a classic guerrilla war in Iraq spearheaded by Saddam Hussein loyalists, and American forces need to adapt their tactics to crush this increasingly organized resistance, the head of the U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday.
This contrasted with an assessment given by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on June 30 that it was not ''anything like a guerrilla war or an organized resistance.''
But Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid, who commands U.S. forces in Iraq, said a guerrilla war is exactly what U.S. troops are confronting.
''It think describing it as guerrilla tactics being employed against us is, you know, a proper thing to describe in strictly military terms,'' Abizaid said during a Pentagon briefing.
He said U.S. forces are fighting remnants of Saddam's Baath Party throughout Iraq.
He said mid-level officials of Saddam's government, including from the old intelligence and security agencies and the Special Republican Guard, ''have organized at the regional level in cellular structure.''
Abizaid said they ''are conducting what I would describe as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us. It's low-intensity conflict in our doctrinal terms, but it's war however you describe it.''
''The level of resistance, I'm not so sure I would characterize it as escalating in terms of number of incidents. But it is getting more organized and it is learning. It is adapting -- it is adapting to our tactics, techniques and procedures...
Right about now, Mr. Rumsfeld's gotta be getting a bit nervous.
This contrasted with an assessment given by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on June 30 that it was not ''anything like a guerrilla war or an organized resistance.''
But Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid, who commands U.S. forces in Iraq, said a guerrilla war is exactly what U.S. troops are confronting.
''It think describing it as guerrilla tactics being employed against us is, you know, a proper thing to describe in strictly military terms,'' Abizaid said during a Pentagon briefing.
He said U.S. forces are fighting remnants of Saddam's Baath Party throughout Iraq.
He said mid-level officials of Saddam's government, including from the old intelligence and security agencies and the Special Republican Guard, ''have organized at the regional level in cellular structure.''
Abizaid said they ''are conducting what I would describe as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us. It's low-intensity conflict in our doctrinal terms, but it's war however you describe it.''
''The level of resistance, I'm not so sure I would characterize it as escalating in terms of number of incidents. But it is getting more organized and it is learning. It is adapting -- it is adapting to our tactics, techniques and procedures...
Right about now, Mr. Rumsfeld's gotta be getting a bit nervous.
