Perspective: Where was resistance on road to Baghdad?

Early on, as front-line troops paused in their drive toward Baghdad -- or did not pause, as the Pentagon insisted -- active and retired U.S. officers said the Iraq war was being waged "on the cheap," with too few soldiers on the ground.

But the war did not wait on strategic infighting, and the twin columns of the advance on Baghdad, infantry to the west and Marines to the east, found surprisingly few barriers on their way to positions on the edge of the Iraqi capital.

On Friday, about 40,000 Marines and infantry were positioned around Baghdad, squared off against what could be 50,000 Iraqi forces inside the city.

"We're almost scratching our heads wondering what happened to the resistance we expected outside of Baghdad," said retired Marine Lt. Col. Dale Davis, who directs international programs and teaches Arabic at the Virginia Military Institute.

Or, as Capt. John Whyte of the 3rd Infantry Division said on Thursday after U.S. troops had claimed Saddam International Airport, 10 miles southwest of central Baghdad, "Sooner or later we have to run into this dude's army somewhere."

Though two divisions of the Republican Guard, the Medina and Baghdad, were described as "no longer credible forces" after days of air bombardment and ground fighting south of Baghdad, it seemed possible that many guard members had fallen back to defend the capital.

Thus, while the onset of the third week of the war saw the coalition's greatest advances to date, and what may turn out to be the death knell of the Iraqi government, the nation's two largest cities -- Baghdad in central Iraq and Basra to the south -- remained in the uncertain grip of Hussein loyalists hemmed in by U.S. and British units.

Meanwhile, pictures recorded the war's toll on innocent lives: a Marine holds a 4-year-old girl whose mother has been killed in cross fire near Rifa; an Iraqi boy walks into an operating room where his injured arm will be amputated following fighting in Hilla.

Ground Forces

Early in the week there were reports of Republican Guard divisions moving from the north of Baghdad to the south to shore up battered forces near Karbala and Kut. Some analysts saw this as a strategic mistake -- why concentrate soldiers in an area where they would be exposed to decimating airstrikes? -- and one perhaps guided by Hussein's historic fear of placing Republican Guards in Baghdad, where they could stage an insurrection.

At the same time, Kurdish militia operating with U.S. special forces and air support in the north advanced on Kirkuk and Mosul and were able to scatter operatives of the militant Ansar al-Islam. Yet there were concerns that the U.S. presence in the north, about 3,000 soldiers, remained too light to control the area should Baghdad fall.

In Nasiriyah, some 190 miles southeast of Baghdad, Navy SEALs and Army Rangers acted on a tip from a local man and raided a hospital on Tuesday. Inside they found Pfc. Jessica Lynch, a prisoner of war since her convoy made a wrong turn and was ambushed nine days earlier. Having suffered broken legs, a broken arm, and other fractures, Lynch was flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for treatment.

In the south, British forces continued their combination of siege and urban warfare tactics aimed at outlasting Baath Party loyalists holding Basra.

Something soldiers and the Pentagon had been seeking since the war began on March 19 -- a welcoming crowd -- was encountered midweek in the holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Yet these scenes were fraught with tension and seemed an uncertain guarantee of lasting acceptance. There were conflicting reports on whether Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the city's leading Shiite cleric, had issued a statement urging people not to hinder coalition troops.

Checkpoint violence

It was a week that began and ended with bleak death in checkpoint incidents involving car bombs or the fear of them.

Last weekend saw the first suicide attack on Western forces, as a taxi blew up at a military checkpoint near Najaf, killing four soldiers of the 3rd Infantry, and a contract worker drove a truck into a group of U.S. soldiers at a PX at Camp Udairi in northern Kuwait, injuring 13 soldiers. The driver, who witnesses said had struck on purpose, was shot and badly wounded.

Iraqi authorities promised more suicide attacks, saying thousands of would-be martyrs from across the Arab world had arrived in Baghdad. The coalition responded to the taxi bombing by closing the roads around Najaf. On Monday, U.S. soldiers opened fire on a van that was said to have failed to stop despite orders to do so and warning shots. Inside the van were 13 women and children, seven of whom were killed.

Another car bomb detonated northwest of Baghdad on Thursday night, killing a pregnant woman, the vehicle's driver and three coalition soldiers. Also Thursday, a 2-year-old girl and two men died after Marines fired on a taxi that officers said was rigged with gasoline cans that might explode. A local witness said the taxi had posed no threat.

The air campaign

As expected, Iraq's inability to hinder the coalition's warplanes appeared to be the decisive factor in the war. On Monday a U.S. military spokesman said Baghdad had been hit by 8,000 precision bombs and missiles total, with 3,000 striking in the last three days alone.

The targets shifted to communications facilities: television transmitters, the Information Ministry and telephone exchanges.

Also bombed were the Olympic Committee Headquarters, where Hussein's son Uday had allegedly run torture chambers, and Baghdad's International Trade Fair compound. Debris from the latter was reported to have struck a nearby Red Crescent maternity hospital, killing several and injuring many, according to Iraqi authorities.

Casualties

As of Friday, 54 American and 27 British service members were reported killed, with 16 U.S. soldiers missing and seven captured. Iraq will not state troop losses but says about 500 civilians have been killed.

British Defense Minister Geoff Hoon told Parliament last week that the coalition has taken 8,000 Iraqi prisoners of war, and that was before a report on Friday that 2,500 Republican Guards had surrendered to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force between Kut and Baghdad. CentCom attributed the figure to Marines in the field and said it had not been confirmed.

The fate of Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay, remained an open question. But Iraqi television on Friday showed what it portrayed as the Iraqi president walking on the streets of Baghdad, being mobbed and cheered by citizens. Smoke was visible in some of the footage, possibly from trenches of burning oil intended to hide targets from coalition aircraft. Earlier on television, Hussein or someone playing him referred to the downing of an Apache helicopter on March 24.

-- Tom Drury is Perspective editor of the Times.

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