SOUTHEAST OF BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A U.S. Marine commander said on Saturday American troops would use overwhelming force to crush any resistance if ordered to storm Baghdad and that the battle would cost many civilian lives.
Marines say there are signs that much of the Iraqi military has decided to give up, but U.S.-led forces are ready if necessary to take on a bloody house-to-house fight for control of the capital.
“We’re not going to tip-toe into the city, it will be a forceful knock-out punch every time we go in,” said U.S. Marine Captain Matt Watt, commander of Lima Company, a unit of mechanized infantry trained in urban warfare.
“We’ll make sure there’s no capability for the enemy to resist us, we’ll go in shooting up every time,” he told Reuters.
“We have to go in forcefully, and when we go in forcefully it just creates a lot of collateral damage.”
Boy, those Iraqis sure make our soldiers do terrible things, don’t they?