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| == '''[[Iraq War, major combat phase]]''' ==
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| After a buildup by [[special operations]] forces and an intensification of air attacks under the [[Operation NORTHERN WATCH]] and [[Operation SOUTHERN WATCH]] "no fly" programs, major ground forces began to move into Iraq on March 20, 2003.
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| As with any war, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Both sides did consider Baghdad the key [[centers of gravity (military)|center of gravity]], but both made incorrect assumptions about the enemy's plans. The U.S. was still sensitive over the casualties taken by a too-light raid in [[Operation GOTHIC SERPENT]] in [[Mogadishu]], [[Somalia]]. As a result, the initial concept of operations was to surround Baghdad with tanks, while airborne and air assault infantry cleared it block-by-block. <ref name=Zucchino>{{citation
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| | author = David Zucchino
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| | title = Thunder Run: the Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad
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| | publisher = Atlantic Monthly Press | year = 2004 | ISBN = 0871139111}}, p. 3</ref>
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| The U.S. also expected the more determined Iraqi forces, such as the [[Special Republican Guard]] and the [[Saddam Fedayeen]], to stay in the cities and fight from cover. Before the invasion, the Fedayeen were seen as [[Uday Hussein]]'s personal paramilitary force, founded in the mid-1990s. They had become known in 2000 and 2001, beheading dissenting women in the streets claiming they were prostitutes. "It was a very new phenomenon, the first time women in Iraq have been beheaded in public," Muhannad Eshaiker of the California-based Iraqi Forum for Democracy told ABC. <ref name=ABC>{{citation
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| | title = Who Are Saddam's 'Fedayeen' Fighters? A Look at Iraq’s Brutal Paramilitary Group, the Fedayeen Saddam
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| | author = Leela Jacinto
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| | date = 24 March 2003 | url = http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=79602&page=1
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| | journal = ABC News}}</ref> They had not been expected to be a force in battle. It was clear that the fedayeen had minimal military training. They seemed unaware of the lethality of the U.S. armored vehicles, and aggressively but haphazardly attacked them. <ref>Zucchino, pp. 14-15</ref> Senior Iraqi Army officers seemed to believe their own propaganda and assume that the war would go well, and there would never be tanks in Baghdad. It was only Special Republican Guard, Saddam Fedayeen, and unexpected Syrian mercenaries that seemed to understand the reality.<ref>Zucchino, pp. 35-36</ref> In an interview after the end of high-intensity combat, MG [[Buford Blount]], commander of the [[3rd Infantry Division]], said "...there were many, I think, Syrian and other countries that had sent personnel; the countries didn't, I think individuals came over on their own that were recruited and paid for by the Ba'ath Party to come over and fight the Americans. We dealt with those individuals there for a two- or three-day period, had a lot of contact with them, but have not seen a reoccurrence of that at this point."<ref name=DLink2003-05-15>{{citation
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| | journal = Defenselink
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| | author - Army Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III | date= May 15, 2003
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| | title = 3rd Infantry Division Commander Live Briefing from Iraq
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| | url = http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=2608}}</ref>
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| ''[[Iraq War, major combat phase|.... (read more)]]''
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| ! style="text-align: center;" | [[Iraq War, major combat phase#References|notes]]
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Napoleon (Napoleon Bonaparte or, after 1804, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French) was a world historic figure and dictator of France from 1799 to 1814. He was the greatest general of his age--perhaps any age, with a sure command of battlefield tactics and campaign strategies, As a civil leader he played a major role in the French Revolution, then ended it when he became dictator in 1799 and Emperor of France in 1804 He modernized the French military, fiscal, political legal and religious systems. He fought an unending series of wars against Britain with a complex, ever-changing coalition of European nations on both sides. Refusing to compromise after his immense defeat in Russia in 1812, he was overwhelmed by a coalition of enemies and abdicated in 1814. In 1815 he returned from exile, took control of France, built a new army, and in 100 days almost succeeded--but was defeated at Waterloo and exiled to a remote island. His image and memory are central to French national identity, but he is despised by the British and Russians and is a controversial figure in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Rise to Power
Once the Revolution had begun, so many of the aristocratic officers turned against the Revolutionary government, or were exiled or executed, that a vacuum of senior leadership resulted. Promotions came very quickly now, and loyalty to the Revolution was as important as technical skill; Napoleon had both. His demerits were overlooked as he was twice reinstated, promoted, and allowed to collect his back pay. Paris knew him as an intellectual soldier deeply involved in politics. His first test of military genius came at Toulon in 1793, where the British had seized this key port. Napoleon, an acting Lieutenant-Colonel, used his artillery to force the British to abandon the city. He was immediately promoted by the Jacobin radicals under Robespierre to brigadier-general, joining the ranks of several brilliant young generals. He played a major role in defending Paris itself from counter-revolutionaries, and became the operational planner for the Army of Italy and planned two successful attacks in April 1794. He married Josephine (Rose de Beauharnais) in 1796, after falling violently in love with the older aristocratic widow.[1]
- ↑ Englund pp 63-73, 91-2, 97-8
