Venus Wars Vs. Iraq

[TheMuffinKing]

By writer's fiat (hooray me!), the U.S.A. decides that the potential loss of life and equipment is too much to bear. Still seeking to invade Iraq and break its toys, the U.S. contracts the invasion to the forces of Ishtar (from: Venus Wars ).

The Ishtarian forces invade, replacing all U.S. forces during the OTL invasion on a one for one basis. For this part of the scenario, all M1 tanks are replaced with Ishtar tanks, trucks for trucks, etc... For the really technically minded, assume Ishtar force structure mirrors that of the U.S. with the caveat that all the Ishtar Marines are the armored guys as seen in the movie.

Ishtar's mission will include the capture of personalities as of the OTL (ie: the 52 card deck of persons of interest) and the pacification of Iraq and the prevention of looting and fundamentalist radicalism.

How do you think Ishtar fares from invasion to today?

For further analysis I'll have to throw in the movie. I have it somewhere and will add some more insight as soon as I find it.

[Elessar]

Canonically, the Ishtar were a military monster who didn't give a shit about things like "diplomacy" and "morality". They were perfectly willing to do anything and everything so long as the nations of Earth didn't decide they overstepped their bounds and send nuke after nuke. That included ruthless annihilation of anyone remotely sympathizing with their enemies.

So basically, all I see is a difference in tactics. Ishtar will just level entire cities in order to get their way, killing a jolly number of civilians to get at one or two insurgents. So will that work? Yeah, maybe. But after they're done, there's not going to be much of Iraq or Iraqis to fill it with.

The initial invasion might be dicier though. If I remember correctly, Ishtar was big on MBT / artillery and light on air support.

[Lord of the Abyss]

The international consequences for America will be even more negative than they were in real life if our "contractors" are engaging in mass slaughter and large scale atrocities. Good luck getting any cooperation from anyone, or convincing other nations they don't need nukes.And the Muslim world would react even more violently, with a lot more sympathy from third parties. We wouldn't see much sympathy after a second 9-11 if our proxies have been depopulating cities.