March 23rd's failed Apache helicopter attack on Republican Guard forces was perhaps the lowest point of the American effort in Gulf War II. How did the out-gunned Iraqis manage to turn such a strike back?
By turning off the lights.
Lt. Gen William Wallace, commander of the U.S. Army's V Corps, told the Associated Press that the Iraqis "orchestrated a localized power outage to serve as a signal of the coming Apache attack." They also used cell phones to warn troops that the Americans were approaching.
Wallace got into trouble with superiors for his comments during the war that the enemy in a Iraq was "a bit different than the one we war-gamed against." He defended those comments Wednesday:
"The enemy that we fought" in numerous cities in southern Iraq in the opening days of the ground offensive "was much more aggressive than what we expected him to be, at least what I expected him to be." He mentioned the cities of Najaf, Hillah, Samawah, Karbala and Nasiriyah.
The Iraqis were "willing to attack out of those towns toward our formations, when my expectation was that they would be defending those towns and not be as aggressive," he added. Wallace also noted that foreigners who fought alongside Iraqi paramilitaries were "fanatical if not suicidal."
"So all of those things led to that comment," he said.
According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon has replaced Wallace as V Corps commander.
