How I would have conducted the invasion of Iraq

My invasion plans begin by amassing 12 divisions at the Kuwaiti border; 7 American heavy Mech/Armor divisions, 2 similar British divisions, the 82nd, the 101st and one light/airmobile British division. These would be organized into 3 maneuverer corps each of 3 heavy divisions and 1 light division. Units would proceed as in diagram: "Mosul Corps" in green, "Bagdad Corps" in red and "Basra Corps" in blue. The war would begin by deep-strike air power, witch would take down C3 nodes and all SSCs but would make every effort to spare anything of civilian import. Each would move through western Iraqi desert to avoid direct confrontation wile air would maintain surveillance over Iraqi field forces and close to our formation, spoiling any attempted attack. Also this would allow easily policing of the landscape (anything that isn't us or moving in our direction is probably there for no good) and even to try to draw out field Iraqi forces onto terrain on witch we could easily prevail. Each corps would set up a 'takeoff point' in the desert (as indicated by the abrupt change of course on the map leading directly to the destination city). There, wile the AF continues to pave the way for the grunts and decimates Iraqi ground formations, each corps would then stop and wait to establish a supply base away from any possible interference and stock up for the next move. Each corps would be tasked with taking what I consider to be the 3 key centers of political gravity in the country, additionally Mosul Corps would take Tikrit before any of the other units would be predicted to encountered anything, for an immediate, 'preemptive', political/PSYOP "sign of things to come". Their stop positions would be carefully positioned to place each almost exactly the same distance from their destination cities wile at the same time allowing an unhindered (no intervening population centers of import ect) strait path, this to time each 'jump off point' and each 'corssing of the Rubicon' would be exactly the same. Finally, at an unexpected moment all 3 corps would charge forward, not stopping for anything for maximum speed to target, on route AF would intensify bombardment the closer our guys got of Iraqi field forces to include (in open terrain) - to include most especially any retreating/repositioning forces - carpet bombing and the use of the new 22,000lb FAE device that for a wile got some attention, all designed to scare Iraqi field forces into easy submission and put them in a 'box' once the Abrams and Bradleys come over the horizon. Also I would have made sure our leaflets we did so much work on told the Iraqis to surrender to us, not just give up and fade away. Our forces would then take a bit to reach their front, but when they did the anticipation of imminent doom for several days on end propagated by such a spectacular light show would so spook them they would rapidly give up as in GW I. The Iraqis would then be disarmed (weapons destroyed), asked their ID to include address (so we can contact them later to form the New Iraqi Army), gather intel on who the bad guys and loyalists are and then ship them back to our desert bases with "a jerry can of water, box of MREs and medical supplies" in the back of HMTVs like in GW I, to be released post-conflict. Additionally pre-conflict I would be sure to raise a cadre of ex-pats to work as guides, scouts, linguists, area specialists ect by advertising both at home and worldwide "America wants you to liberate your country!" through our embassies. Now when this is all done, our forces would again stop just short of their corps objectives to surround the cities and allow logistics a chance to catch up and provide another logistics stop over for the anticipated battle. Then, one night the bombing would cease over they cities come nightfall, and at some hour of the deep night it would begin: each city would without notice "receive" any entire corps. Each corps would move in company formations from all directions, fanning out across the city to each reach their individual company-team objectives, stopping for nothing in a all-or-nothing shot to rapidly achieve their objectives at any cost. Each company's objective would be an urban key-terrain site, everything needed to control the country from government office towers to the national radio/tv station to schools and hospitals and even gas stations, ANYTHING NECESSARY WHO'S CONTROL MEANS THE CONTROL OF THE URBAN TERRAIN. They would not stop to fight any resistance encountered, only to break through, and would attempt to "be in the enemy's rear before he even knows you've launched the attack". All this once again to sow confidence in the Iraqi population, the world and the opposition that America is wildly undefinable and has the situation unflinchingly under control and that "resistance is futile", anyone who fights must do it with his own people around, attack units already established on the defensive and basically to fight in his own key infrastructure (will look real bad). Each company would be organized into a defense platoon (to hold their objective) a patrol platoon to find the enemy and engage him decisively wile he's still waking up to the situation and a reserve platoon. Units would establish indirect fire bases to assist the patrol platoon. Finally OH-58s and AH-64s would circle over head from high (above small-arms range) altitude to assist Company Assault Teams mainly in sensors/surveillance but also if need be fire support. This whole process would unfold in a matter of 30-60 minutes, transferring 108 CATs in each city to their UKT objectives before they would "set up shop" and "win by default". This is the "at dusk it's Saddam's, by dawn it's ours" and "swift transference of power" (politically significant objectives) strategy that could mean potentially huge city-wide small-arms firefights that could last into daybreak but not beyond next-dusk. Troops would be rested before "Operation Transference of Power" so they could go on adrenaline for the next '24'. If Saddam tried to escape he would be surrounded by our people without him having any prep time to pack up and leave. Immediately all services and facilities would continue functioning, only under our control, and we could do such things as start broadcasting expat-radio/tv to maintain commo with Iraqi public (use former Saddam posters as billboards to do this also), off free gas ect. Once order was restored (ASAP! maintain momentum at any cost!) 'garrison' units would be relieved to square away surrounding country side / small population centers and leave maybe 1 heavy and the 1 light divisions in each city (Bagdad is big enough to probably not do this). Once this was accomplished, post-conflict would begin (in pacified urban major centers this may begin before countryside would). Basic idea would be to first declare marshal law (or my idea of it) and that we intend to stay only as long as is necessary to get Iraq back on it's feet but we're in control until then. The US would be for a vary brief time conducting all jobs we see need doing (everything from security to taking out the trash to running the water/power plants) and would simultaneously start hiring Iraqis for the jobs. I would set up a "put Iraq to work" program as the first step in my "five year plan" for the country. This program would immediately hire 2 million Iraqi males for unskilled labor and 200k males or females for skilled labor who would apply at the local (now) local-area-control battalion HQ (urban centers to be divided up into btn fiefdoms as means of control) and would receive a recruitment bonus for just signing up, then a weekly salary in return for showing up when asked (basically a retainer so we know where to find them) that would be somewhere above the national average pre-war for their abilities. Background investigations would immediately begin by asking each applicant to tell us about the others and pilfering former regime records. So long as no evidence of loyalty that would transcend into the present for the past regime would be found they would keep their job. The new American-payed workers would then be assigned specific jobs under US oversight with the skilled workers organizing the unskilled in many instances with other skilled working alone. Further former government workers records would be found and they would be ordered back to work under US pay within reason equivalent to greater than former pay if they didn't show up. Also I would off rewards for those who turn in or provide information leading to the arrest of opposition members: 5k USD for "trigger pullers", 50k USD for "committed actors", 500k USD for "local leadership" and 5m USD for "national leadership" on top of the 15m USD for the aces of hearts, clubs and diamonds and 25m USD for spades. These programs is designed to sway the Iraqi public to our camp AMAP by putting monies in their pocket (on our terms, and out of would-be enemies pockets) occupation to keep them busy (out of the hands of would-be enemies) and immediately instill civic pride (steer them away from ideas not useful to us wile coddling nationalism that will insure stability and liberal civicism when we leave) wile getting the job done for much less cost than an outside contractor ("have them rebuild their own country"). Increases in the enrollment of PITW program may follow to reduce unemployment (looks vary impressive throughout the Arab World with it's universal 60% unemployment!) and if you run out of real jobs just put them to busy-work. NIA would be rapidly reformed and progressively retrained to world-class American standards so it can become an institution of national pride (more of the good stuff!). Now that Iraq seems economically upwardly-mobile and strong (all in the blink of an eye! I'm thinking 3-4 months) we will begin the mass education campaign. I would use all available commo means - radio, tv, newly established billboards, leaflets, posters, distribution of free books - to teach Iraqis civic and entrepreneurial values, one for the masses and one for the intelligencia / anyone more interested. However, the US would throughout maintain firm control over the country. Now that Iraqis are feeling proud and prosperous and abuzz in new ideas (12-18 months in), we'll put them to work and begin the process of ceding control, starting from the getgo (early post-conflict days) with reaching out to local leadership and then over time to local democracy (witch allows careful monitoring of undesirable elements hopefully more easily). This easilly-contained 'sand box' experiment would further teach the population proper civics/economics through trial-and-error witch would not be catastrophic if it bungled up (like if on a national scale). Eventually as powers where gradually ceded to locals and the US toke more and more of a "backup and observer" trainer wheels approach regional governments would be created with then only really national control in US hands (3.5-4.5 years). Finally US would allow national self-rule would be announces as the finishing touches on nation-building would be wrapped up and it would be expected the first act of the new national government would be to ask the US to leave witch it would be more than prepared and able to do. End of story.