Thunder Run

Baghdad, 2003.  In the two weeks since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, U.S. Military forces had pushed 700 kilometers from the Kuwait border to the outskirts of Baghdad.  Yet the question remained, "In a city of six million with resistance fighters well-entrenched, how to topple the regime?"  This case study interprets the events of the "Thunder Run," the operation designed to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime, through the doctrine of "Mission Command."  Using raw footage from the battle and extensive interviews with Lieutenant General David Perkins, the study focuses on the commander's perspective. Perkins recalls his time as a colonel commanding  2d Brigade, and his decision to use M1A1 tanks and Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles to enter Baghdad and bring the war to a quick end.