Ominous signs: Regular and Guerilla Resistance to American invasion
'US and British officers had warned that the battle could be a great deal harder than their more ideological civilian colleagues were suggesting. But even they thought the regular Iraqi army would collapse and the main threat would come from the leadership carrying out dramatic destructive gestures involving blowing up oil fields or using weapons of mass destruction... But groups of Iraqi soldiers have been prepared to do something that was not expected of them - fight to the death.'

US plans for the war have staked considerable hopes on the rapid collapse of the Saddam regime, in as little as one or two weeks. Serious resistance could lead to the war being prolonged for months, ending in a bloodbath, which would be a political and strategic disaster for the United States.

Ominous signs: Regular and Guerilla Resistance to American invasion
'US and British officers had warned that the battle could be a great deal harder than their more ideological civilian colleagues were suggesting. But even they thought the regular Iraqi army would collapse and the main threat would come from the leadership carrying out dramatic destructive gestures involving blowing up oil fields or using weapons of mass destruction... But groups of Iraqi soldiers have been prepared to do something that was not expected of them - fight to the death.'

US plans for the war have staked considerable hopes on the rapid collapse of the Saddam regime, in as little as one or two weeks. Serious resistance could lead to the war being prolonged for months, ending in a bloodbath, which would be a political and strategic disaster for the United States.