World-News

"So you think that American troops, fighting in the urban maze of Baghdad's huge Shiite slum, Sadr City, add up to nothing more than a horrible mistake, an unexpected fiasco?" asks Nick Turse in this chilling look at the Pentagon's urban warfare visions. "The Pentagon begs to differ. While the Joint Forces Command may already be war-gaming the 2015 Battle for Baghdad, right now it looks like the U.S. military will have trouble hanging on there for even a couple of more years. Still, if present plans become reality, odds are U.S. military planners will be attempting to occupy some city, in some fashion, come 2015 and 2025. In the future, as the Army's new Urban Operations Manual puts it, 'every Soldier - regardless of branch or military occupational specialty - must be committed and prepared to close with and kill or capture threat forces in an urban environment.'"

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