The Big Lie Series

THE POWER OF THE BIG LIE

Mark 11:7-26

Preached at Christian Life Worship Center

Sunday morning April 13, 2003

By John W. Ingham

Introduction:

1. Read Scripture Text.

2. The Road to Baghdad began on April fool’s day, April one, but Saddams’ forces had no idea the joke was on them.

· The Marine attack against the Republican Guard’s Baghdad Division was in fact a well-choreographed feint, with one regiment of the 1st marine Division moving north toward Kut under a blanket of stars to draw Iraqi fire. Meanwhile, the rest of the division did an end around the city, using an intact bridge in the town of Numiniyah to put thousands of troops over the Tigris Rive. An entire Republican Guard division was encircled, paving the way for the Marines to launch an all-out assault on the Baghdad Division’s western flank.

· The original plan had called for the Marines to attack first, allowing them to secure Highway 6 before the Army advanced against the Medina Division. Yet Central Command opted for a synchronized, two-division punch that would simultaneously knock out an entire layer of defense around Baghdad. The Army and Marine attack was even moved forward by 24 hours, as satellites monitoring Iraqi radio traffic intercepted an order to pull back Republican Guard forces into the friendly confines of Baghdad’s streets. There just was no time to wait.

· Behind the firepower of more than 200 M1 Abrams tanks, the 3rd I.D pushed north through the Karala Gap, engaging Iraqi units along the way and clearing a path toward the final ring of defenses protecting Baghdad. Their initial assault on Saddam International Airport, now Baghdad International Airport, was nearly unopposed. Subsequent waves of Iraqi fighters staged daring, suicidal raids in which a ZU’S commander estimated that some 1,000 Iraqi fighters were killed.

· Their paths had been paved by a punishing weeklong air assault. “My objective, if possible, is to kill every one of them.” Says Air Force Lt. Gen. T. Michael Mosely, the coalition air commander. The Medina and Baghdad divisions had been judged “combat ineffective” by the Pentagon, meaning that their combat capabilities had been cut below 50 percent. Nevertheless, top officers seemed surprised when the first Republican Guard units confronted appeared completely overwhelmed by the two-division attack.

· When the shooting stopped, marine tanks drove along Highway 6 past the flaming wrecks of what had been the vaunted Republican Guard Division. Most of the division’s soldiers had already fled into Kut, where the Marines were happy to leave them for a later date. Now they have all surrendered.

3. What stories we see and hear today!

· A picture of a Marine being kissed by a citizen of Baghdad.

· The large statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled

down in the center of downtown Baghdad by a

frenzied screaming mob of citizens.

· A little girl holding a envelope to her car window

that read “Thank you Mr. George Bush.”

· A soldier and an elderly gentleman shaking

hands.

· A Soldier holding a little boy on his shoulders.

· A Robed businessman giving a red carnation to a Marine.

· And the one I will never forget is when I had gotten up at 1:30 A.M. to pray for our soldiers and I turned on the TV just as the 3rd Mechanized division had pulled up to Saddam’s Main Palace. The news commentator asked him if he was going to put an American flag over the palace. He said, “No but I do have a flag for his palace.” And of course the rest is history as he took out a Georgia Bulldog banner to take inside. I understand that soldier is from Watkinsville.

4. I can’t help but think of these scenes as I think this year of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

5. Today we know that victory is at hand as elements of the 73rd Airborne out of Vinenza, Italy come down from the north and the 3rd mechanized Infantry Division of the Army come up from the south along with the Marines to meet the other coalition forces to overtake the last stronghold of Iraq, Saddam’s home city, Tikrit.

6. One retired general who came through the Second World War said, “I have not felt this kind feeling of great joy for over 40 years when we won World War 2.”

7. But one of the most amazing things I will remember about this war was the power of the Big lie in Baghdad.

· Saddam Hussein in no uncertain terms told the Arab world that his troops would run the Americans out of Iraq. But then of course he has been lying since 1991, we know about not having weapons of mass destruction. The Big Lie has stymied the French, Russians and Germans and thousands of others demonstrating around the world thinking that they could get Saddam Hussein to destroy his weapons of mass destruction.