Plan A was decapitation. Plan B was roll across the border and watch Saddam's regime crumble. Plan C was bribe teh Republican Guard commanders to defect. Plan D was "shock and awe"--bomb Baghdad for one night and watch Saddam fall. Plan E was blitzkrieg--roll up to the gates of Baghdad in a week and then watch Saddam fall.
We're now on Plan F. Plan F is to make the British urban-warfare specialists with their experience in Northern Ireland clear out the Mesopotamian cities south of Baghdad, and wait for the regime to fall. Plan F will be followed by Plan G: wait two months to bring up the big hammer--the tank corps that normal operational planning would have had sitting in the Kuwaiti Desert eating BBQ all along, defeat the Republican Guard in a big battle between Karbala and Baghdad, roll up to the gates of Baghdad, and wait for the regime to fall. Plan G wlll be followed by Plan H: besiege Baghdad while dropping food parcels on it, and watch the citizens of Baghdad slowly starve to death as Saddam's enforcers confiscate teh food drops. Plan H will be follwed by Plan I: fighting house-to-house all the way into central Baghdad...
Brad DeLong