On Point: the United States Army in Operation Iraqi ... - Boekje Pienter

Summary of EventsSaddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do sowill result in military conflict.President George W. Bush17 March 2003My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stagesof military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world fromgrave danger.On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of militaryimportance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war. These are openingstages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign.President George W. BushAddress to the Nation19 March 2003President Bush made the decision to launch OIF on 16 March 2003 and issued an ultimatumwith a 48-hour deadline on the 17th. That decision was the beginning of the end of 12 years ofcat-and-mouse between Saddam Hussein and the international community. CENTCOM’s andthe services’ years of hard work and preparation in the Southwest Asia (SWA) theater gavethe president the flexibility to make that announcement—to draw a line in the sand—with acredible military force ready and able to enforce that decision. While regional and Europeangovernments attempted last-minute diplomacy, the United Nations and international aidagencies, anticipating war, cleared out of the future combat zone. America’s strategic goal wasembedded in the president’s numerous addresses—establish a free, democratic, prosperous,and nonthreatening Iraqi state. The first step in achieving that goal was removing SaddamHussein’s Ba’athist regime, by force if necessary.The path from 17 March to Iraq’s new future started at the berm along the Kuwait-Iraqborder and ended in Baghdad, the regime’s seat of power and control. To accomplish this, thecoalition focused on the capital city as the key to removing the regime. Crossing the berm andpushing north into Iraq was the first task. Coalition troops breached the berm on the 20th ofMarch and conducted a series of maneuvers and attacks to secure the Rumaila oil fields and toset the conditions for their march up-country.The running start began with the president’s decision to execute the “decapitation strike”on the 19th of March, intending to kill Saddam Hussein and the senior regime leadership in onefell swoop. Subsequent Iraqi attempts to sabotage the oil fields led CENTCOM to begin thecoalition’s ground forces border crossing 24 hours earlier than originally planned.Over the next few days, coalition aircraft averaged between 1,500 and 2,000 sorties aday, with about 50 percent of those flown in support of CFLCC or on-call missions. Duringthese early days of the campaign, the US Air Force launched 100 air-launched cruise missiles.Coalition warships also launched another 500 cruise missiles. Coalition air attacked seniorIraqi leadership, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, and artillery batteries to86