That would change everything, or so they believed….
Chapter 17
“As you were.” The assembled officers were meeting at SOUTHCOM in Kuwait City for a status conference and planning session, including General Bergman of the 1st Marine Division, and now overall commander of the SOUTHCOM forces, with Air Force commander General Goldman. EUROCOM Commander Black Jack Arnold joined, and CENTCOM Commander Jonas Walker flew in from the north to attend and report on progress there, As the senior commander in theater, he took the podium.
“Gentlemen, we’ve made exceptional progress since Zero Hour. All our initial objectives have been obtained, principally Ramadi and Karbala, and we own the gaps. In the north, the enemy defensive front is now on a line from Fallujah to Al Taji north of Baghdad, and that has pulled in the Qusar Hussein Division to cover the northern approaches to Baghdad through Al Taji. General Arnold and associates have done an outstanding job at Karbala, and the French contingent is now involved at Hillah to clear that flank as EUROCOM prepares to move north. In that sector, we note that the Iraqis have pulled the Hammurabi Division out of Alexandria, tightening their defenses around Baghdad. It’s clear they mean to make a fight for the capital, but we’re up to the task. General Bergman will now brief us on SOUTHCOM operations.”
“Thank you, sir.” Bergman was in camos, a big man, and all square jawed business.
“SOUTHCOM is pleased to report that as of 06:00 this morning, all enemy forces had been driven north across the border into Iraq, and Kuwait is liberated. That fulfills our principle objective, with Operation Clipper liberating Saudi Arabia, and now Southern Eagle liberating Kuwait. But before we celebrate, General Goldman’s air intelligence arm has been reporting a considerable influx of Iranian forces crossing into Iraq over the last 24 hours. These forces include the 64th Bandar Motor Rifle Brigade, three Marine Battalions, The Dezful Reserve Armored Brigade, and a significant number of Revolutionary Guard units. General?”
Goldman was in his dress uniform, laden with ribbons and medals, and looked all the world like a highly decorated insurance salesman. He ran up some digital slides showing the latest intelligence, and now focused on the north.
“Gentlemen, I have good news, and bad news. The Erbil Division left that city near the Turkish frontier and moved south yesterday to join a column of Iranian units emerging from the Kirkuk district. Thus far, we’ve identified the Iranian 77th Khorasan and 84th Lorestan MR Brigades approaching Baqubah, the Karukh Mountain Brigade on Highway-3 heading south with brigades from Tehran, Hamedan, and Azerbaijan, so those forces constitute two Iranian divisions in the north, and let’s also remember the Iraqi Mosul Division is up there too. Given this increased concentration of enemy units, we need to assess the wisdom of moving too far north, especially since we still have what looks to be a hard nut to crack at Baghdad.”
He smiled. “In case you were wondering, that was the good news. Now for the bad… The Chinese have mobilized significant forces from their Western Military District, notably from the 13th and 21st Armies, and they are on the move. The first elements crossed the border by rail into Tajikistan, heading for Dushanbe, and that can only mean they are intending to move into Iran. Whether they stay there, or deploy here remains to be seen, but this is a complication that no one on the operational planning side anticipated. It was generally believed, particularly given the situation in Manchuria with the Siberians, that we would not see any significant ground force from PLAN in this theater. Unfortunately, that may be about to change, and I’ll yield the podium back to General Walker to take it from here.”
“Thank you, General Goldman. I’m sure you’ll be watching that strategic rail lift like a hawk. As for what this may mean for our situation, I can report that the two Armored BCT’s of 1st Infantry Division have arrived in Israel, and they are moving into Saudi Arabia to take Highway 85 down to your sector, General Bergman. With the single BCT from 1st Cav, the addition of the Big Red One will augment your core ground force to two full divisions. Beyond that, we are releasing the 173rd’s Air Mobile Brigade from theater reserve, and it will be coming down to join the 82nd airborne as well.”
“Any help from the Saudis, sir? After all, we pulled their chestnuts out of the fire.”
“That we did, and that’s an affirmative. The Saudis wanted to keep their forces in the Kingdom, but considering what we did to eject the Iraqis, they have put together a heavy contingent composed of their King Khalid Armored Brigade, and the 11th Mech Brigade. This was, in the opinion of the Joint Chiefs, the minimum reinforcement necessary if we are to continue with Able Fire, and gentlemen, I’ll be blunt—we are continuing. The liberation of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait under Able Sentry has come to a conclusion here with General Bergman’s report this morning. Now Able Fire has a new task list. The operations we move to stage and conduct at this point have two goals.”
General Walker, short, graying, a 30 year Army Veteran, now put up a new slide showing the general state of operations in Iraq as a whole. The audience could see the lines curving around Fallujah in the north, and extending northeast towards Al Taji. This front was largely manned by the six brigades in 1st Armored and the 3rd I.D. The two brigades of 1st Cav had been detached north, sweeping above Al Taji to cut Highway-1, and now probing towards Samarra.
South of Baghdad, the European Brigades had secured both Karbala and Al Hillah, with British forces entering Alexandria, which had been abandoned by the Hammurabi Division. That force was now organizing for a thrust towards Baghdad to complete the pincer operation with US forces and squeeze the capital from two sides. Walker addressed the issues at hand.
“In the north, the taking of Baghdad is largely a political goal, aimed at unseating or badly destabilizing the Hussein regime to the point where we render it ineffective as a controlling and governing force in Iraq that can oppose our other objectives. At this junction, I want to bring up a Special Central Intelligence Agency Agent, Mister James Coleman.
“Thank you, General Walker. I’ll put up a slide of Baghdad to get a look at what we’re about to bite off and chew here. As you can see, it’s a vast sprawling city, bisected by the Tigris River, which makes this sharp hairpin turn just south of city center. A good many of our objective sites in the city will be just above that hairpin, which is the centered on the great twin swords of the Victory Arch, commemorating the fallen in the Iran-Iraq war. It seems they’ve put their differences aside to fight this one, and so this is no small matter. The operations we now conduct are going to reshape the entire Middle East, a political upheaval the ends of which are still not clearly seen.
“Please bear in mind that we are on a short leash here. The President has authorized both Able Sentry and our transition now to Able Fire, but the Army was put on notice in the planning stages, and we were given 90 days to conclude major fighting that would liberate both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, neuter the Hussein Regime so we don’t have to come back here in another five years, and then secure the vital oil facilities in country, as far as we are able—and ladies and gentlemen, from all battlefield reports I’ve seen to date, we are able.”
At that, the junior officers in the room let out the expected “Uraah,” and Coleman smiled.