A column of up to 1,000 Iraqi military vehicles made up of troops from the Republican Guard is heading south from Baghdad toward the lead elements of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. They think they’re trying to retake a Euphrates River bridge captured by U.S. troops this week. U.S. commanders were calling in airstrikes to slow the Iraqi advance but the sandstorms are limiting the use of jets in that area and have made helicopters completely irrelevant for probably two more days.

At nearly the same time, a column of ~100 Iraqi armored vehicles rolled out of Basra heading southeast. Coalition fighter jets were scrambled to intercept them (the weather’s not really as bad to the south). This move is curious:

x They appear to be heading either into a cul-de-sac (a southern penisula held by coalition forces), or defecting to Iran.
x They left the protection of the city for the open sand — storm or no storm, this is a bad move, as they are currently “Getting the Living Crap Blown Out of Them” in the sophisticated parlance of the Military.
x The gist of all the news I’ve seen on this is that everyone knows what the larger column is doing, and no one knows what the smaller one is doing. From a paranoic gamer’s point of view, this immediately makes me suspect the smaller column of something duplicitous.

Too much Amber Doyce...

Okay, it's right now that Benedict shows up in his fake moustache and black beret, takes out Saddam, and gets his monthly "Fighting from a Huge Disadvantage" practice session in ...

See, yah don't even joke about something like that.

"You say I have 30,000 thousand fanatics at my disposal? That should do..."

JSTARs are built for this kind of thing.

So, would Benedict hesitate to use WMDs? Or would he consider them inelegant?

All I know is that if Saddam challenges Tommy Franks to a sword fight in front of whatever remains of his least damaged palace, the General should decline, courteously.

Of course, Benedict might relish the challenge of fighting M1 Abrams tanks with introduced-in-1958 T-55s.