U.S. calls in the big guns to put guerrillas on notice

WASHINGTON — The weeklong U.S. assault on the Sunni Triangle with one-ton bombs, artillery barrages and lightning raids is meant to send a blunt message of American resolve — as much as rounding up Baathist insurgents and destroying caches of weapons, say military officers.

"It’s a psychological tool," said one senior military officer at the Pentagon, pointing to operations with names such as "Iron Hammer," "Ivy Cyclone" and "Furious Fire." The message: "We’re not quitting. We’re taking the fight to you."

And there is no indication that the heavy-handed tactics employed by American commanders in Iraq will end soon. In Baghdad on Thursday a U.S. general said the "Iron Hammer" offensive against insurgents in the capital had reduced guerrilla attacks in the city by 70 percent.

"What I want the enemy to know is that there is no sanctuary in Baghdad," said Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, who brushed aside suggestions that the operation was merely a "show of force."

In recent days in Iraq, the U.S. Air Force used some of the largest weapons in its inventory, 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs, to strike bomb-making camps north of Baghdad.

An Army officer in Iraq familiar with the operations said the U.S. military, after months of escalating violence from Iraqi insurgents and their foreign allies, are sending the message with powder and shell rather than dropping leaflets and broadcasting announcements.

To get its point across, the United States is using overwhelming force, from F-16 attack aircraft and AC-130 gunships to artillery batteries, concentrating firepower on the Sunni Triangle, Saddam Hussein’s one-time Baathist stronghold north and west of Baghdad.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former commandant of the Army War College and co-author of "The Iraq War," which chronicles the military aspects of the three-week campaign to oust Hussein, said the high-intensity U.S. operations are necessary "to gain the psychological upper hand."

"The Iraqis still don’t understand they were beaten," Scales said, noting that the celebrated 19th Century Prussian military tactician Carl Von Clausewitz emphasized that crushing the enemy’s will to fight is paramount.