The 2003 Battle of Baghdad

In 2003, one of the most consequential urban operations in modern military history took place as US forces approached Baghdad from the south—the battle for control of the Iraqi capital, including the armored "thunder runs" that collapsed Saddam Hussein’s regime. Drawing from his firsthand experience as the commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division during the battle, retired General David Perkins joins John Spencer in this episode to recount how roughly a thousand American soldiers conducted two rapid and aggressive assaults into Baghdad, during the second of which they seized and held the center of a city of six million against entrenched Republican Guard forces. He describes how US soldiers overwhelmed stiff enemy resistance with speed, combined arms integration, disciplined mission command, and relentless momentum.