Lessons from Serbs
One of the concerns about a war with Iraq comes from U.S. planners' new tactic of having troops and armor advance as fast as possible with little regard to supply and reinforcement lines. That is designed to take advantage of developments in armor and communications that will permit the United States to attack Iraqi forces from many directions with little warning. The down side is that tanks and other armor could move so fast they would wind up stuck on the banks of the Euphrates River and in the marshes around Baghdad, waiting for engineers to construct sturdy roads and replace bridges destroyed by the Iraqis. Here is a worrisome scenario outlined by several strategists, including some at the Pentagon: The armor gets slowed crossing the Euphrates on the way to Baghdad. The Iraqis lob chemical shells into the gridlock, and they manage to jam the electronic communications systems in the Abrams tanks and the Bradley fighting vehicles - perhaps by broadcasting noise on all available frequencies. Suddenly, the U.S. vehicles find themselves out of communication with each other and unsure of where their foes are. The Iraqi attacks create confusion. With little fuel, the armor cannot move far. Soon, the tanks' internal oxygen systems are exhausted, forcing crews to breathe outside air, which makes them vulnerable to Iraqi chemical weapons. Ground troops begin to withdraw, and the tanks must be abandoned.

Destroying crucial dams.
Iraqis could blow up dams to flood areas around Baghdad, the northern city of Mosul, and the marshes around Basra in the south. This would slow a direct, quick punch against Baghdad and other cities.
Destroying one dam on the Tigris River north of Mosul - the 35th largest dam in the world in terms of the water behind it would flood northern roads U.S. forces need for an assault from Turkey. Destroying other dams south and west of Baghdad would complicate the assault from Kuwait. To cope with this tactic, extra Marine amphibious units are being deployed in the region. Their equipment and training permit them to carry the fight to the enemy regardless of water barriers.

Setting oil wells on fire.
The Iraqis set oil wells ablaze in Kuwait in 1991. Pentagon planners say they believe that Saddam is ready to do the same in Iraq, but this time he could also place chemical or biological agents in the oil fields. That would turn burning wells into chemical or biological weapons.

Interfering with communications and targeting devices.
Iraqi forces can easily obtain jamming equipment that could block or confuse radar, radios and the Global Positioning System units allied forces would use to navigate and to target weapons. Military experts say the Iraqis have the technical capability to conduct the jamming, but they are unsure whether the Iraqi forces have the creativity to do it, as the Serbs did. Besides jamming communications by filling the airwaves, Iraqis could confuse radar by adding spurious signals to a radar system's returns. That could lead the radar to conclude there are more, or fewer, targets in an area. Iraq has also tried to develop an electromagnetic pulse weapon that could fry the computer and electronic networks in U.S. weapons, experts say.

Using weapons of mass destruction.
Strategists presume Saddam does not have nuclear bombs, but they believe he does have chemical and biological weapons. The use of either of those would slow an infantry advance and probably slow an armor advance. The Pentagon says no matter how well troops have been trained in the use of protective suits, there would inevitably be gruesome deaths if Saddam used chemical weapons. Depending on how many died and how many times it happened, that could be a huge psychological setback for soldiers and for Americans back home. Adding to the problem: Saudi and Kuwaiti officials have hinted they would refuse to let contaminated personnel and vehicles back into their countries.

Fighting between the Turks and the Kurds in northern Iraq.
Turkish troops have waged a 15-year struggle in and near northern Iraq to contain Kurdish separatists, some of whom want to create an independent Kurdish nation that would include parts of Turkey and Iraq. The Turks have begun to move more troops to the Turkey-Iraq border to prevent Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq from infiltrating into Turkey during a war. Fighting between Turks and Kurds would complicate the U.S. drive to Baghdad and the reinforcement and resupply of troops by requiring the U.S. soldiers to try to keep the two sides apart. It would also give regional Saddam loyalists the chance to harass distracted U.S. forces. That would delay efforts to secure the northern oil wells, rout the local pockets of Saddam supporters and stamp out a small group of al-Qaeda supporters in the northeast.

Launching Scud missiles against Israel, possibly with chemical or biological warheads. Israeli retaliation could recast the war as the Arabs against Israel. If Iraq cannot launch Scuds, it may try to provoke Israel by infiltrating terrorist bombers with chemical or biological weapons. Among other things, an Israeli entry into the fighting would most likely close off Jordan and Saudi Arabia as areas from which U.S. forces could operate.

Urban warfare.
A street-by-street battle would slow U.S. troops and drive up casualties. One factor working in the favor of U.S. troops is that Baghdad's relatively low-rise buildings make it an open urban landscape. That makes it easier for allied forces to use helicopters to protect ground troops and flush out Iraqi defenders.

Fighters in civilian clothing
Iraqis are building defensive structures to heavily fortify Baghdad and Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, an indication that the Iraqi leader plans to make a stand in his cities. The Pentagon says it believes reports that Iraqi forces have bought U.S. and British uniforms and plan to use them to confuse allied forces. There are signs that some elements of the elite Republican Guard are training to fight in civilian dress and that Iraq will deliberately use fighters in civilian clothes to make a stand in the streets of Baghdad and Tikrit. At a time when allied forces will want to be especially careful to avoid killing civilians so as not to alienate opinion in Arab states and around the world, that could prove a huge headache.