DEFINITIONS
Decimation. According to Webster's; "The act of destroying or killing a large proportion of or; to select by lot and kill 1 out of 10." In our modern world, it might mean the destruction of whatever amount it takes to break a country's political will, a completely different, and utterly unpredictable thing.
According to most reports out of Iraq since the war started, Coalition forces have lost between 50 and 75 killed in accidents or combat and another dozen captured. For the individuals involved and their families, each of these is a tragedy. For the Coalition, from a force of nearly 250,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines these are not only negligible losses, (about 1/100th of 1%); they are incredibly small for the gains we have made.
We have taken over 4000 prisoners in the vicinity of Basra and the division they belonged to has essentially ceased to exist, with the remainder of its troops taking off their uniforms and trying to blend into the civilian population. That division has not only been decimated, it's been decimated ten times over. The die hard hold outs can injure our formations but they can't stop the progress of the campaign; and they are doing much more damage to their own people than they are to us.
Keep in mind that this is only a campaign, a series of battles within a war. The war is against terror as a whole and neither began, nor will it end, with the campaign in Iraq.
As of today, 31 March 2003, our armies have not yet suffered any serious setbacks, nor do I expect them to in the near future. Our losses are not at all severe and we have plenty of power to finish this campaign and the one after this, wherever that may be. 'Decimation' of our forces will not occur in the absolute sense. In the sense of political will, it will only occur if we are seen to be failing.
One of the main reasons we'll win is the training and leadership of our services. The function of our leaders is, obviously, to lead. Every leader from General Tommy Franks down to the junior NCOs on the sharp end of the spear is committed to completing the mission. They are all well trained, not only in the tactics of combat and the technical aspects of their weapons, they are trained in dealing with uncertainty. When faced with enemy contact, our troops are not confined by rigid requirements for someone up the chain of command to make a decision, they can usually make it themselves. They aren't afraid to make decisions.
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