LATimes --An Old Fashioned Fight - Final War Plan Is Lots of Tanks and Troops

The Pentagon has been given three priority missions in presidential directives:

* thwart any use of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq;

* depose Hussein;

* create conditions for a new democratic government in Iraq after the invasion.

According to senior Defense officials, the White House also levied two additional requirements that influenced military planning.

First, Iraq was to be preserved "as a unitary state, with its territorial integrity intact," according to a presidential directive signed in December.

Second, Iraq's oil infrastructure was to be protected as much as possible.

Both would require boots on the ground -- a lot of them.

Though the air component of Central Command has managed to extract only a week of bombing before ground troops advance, the plan still calls for opening with a blistering air bombardment of Iraqi air defenses, command and control, missiles, and suspected weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

Simultaneous special operations attacks would seek to capture facilities suspected of housing chemical and biological weapons. Airfields inside Iraq would be attacked to give U.S. forces greater operational flexibility, as well as to divert Iraqi energies.

Three Republican Guard divisions are now dug in astride the approaches to Baghdad. If they tried to hold their ground...

This is a big if, playing Iraq I feel my one option would be to move all troops to populated areas and let the US assault civilians. Just a comment from an old wargamer.