American forces are poised to eliminate Saddam Hussein's ability to control the limited force he has left while facing the dangers of street-to-street warfare

摘要

More than 1,200 years ago, when the tribal village of Baghdad was chosen as a capital city, it was called Madinat al-Salam, the City of Peace. Now, of course, the name hardly seems appropriate. The ancient city, partially obscured by smoke from oil trench fires and rocked by U.S. precision airstrikes, is paralyzed by the impending American assault. For the American soldiers who captured the beachhead at Saddam International Airport, their eyes are, quite literally, on the prize―the center of what remains of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime. Arrayed in front of them are many secrets―vast presidential palace compounds, hidden tunnels, deep underground bunkers, and, perhaps, the deadly weapons of mass destruction, the casus belli that prompted the American-led assault. "This guy is on his deathbed, literally and figuratively," a senior military officer at the Kuwait headquarters for U.S. ground forces told field commanders in a videoconference last week. "And we're not going to let go of his neck over the next couple days."