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2006-02-26 Iraq

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Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-02-26 16:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Other phases of the war not mentioned include enticing foreign fighters to enter Iraq so that they can be concentrated and killed fighting our soldiers in Iraq, rather than free to travel to America from their home countries and attack our civilians.

Another phase is the SOCOM shadow war, happening concurrently with the overt war. Its personnel do not have a concept of operations limited to Iraq, but are focused on the entire region and beyond. Their actions are complementary to the conventional force, and just as deadly.

A third phase is using the war to radically restructure all parts of our military, upgrading and replacing vast amounts of technology, and doing so at an exaggerated pace.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-02-26 18:42|| 2006-02-26 18:42|| Front Page Top

#2 pretty good article considering it is the WaPo

they actually spoke to uniformed personnel and reported what the personnel said

Said personnel can only realistically note what they have personnally witnessed. Since you can't witness the flypaper hypothesis, you can't report it.

Posted by mhw 2006-02-26 19:56|| 2006-02-26 19:56|| Front Page Top

#3 Real progress is being made in training Iraqi forces, especially its army, according to every U.S. officer asked about the issue. One of the surprises, they say, has been that an Iraqi soldier, even one who is overweight and undertrained, is more effective standing on an Iraqi street corner than the most disciplined U.S. Army Ranger. "They get intelligence we would never get," noted Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East. "They sense the environment in a way that we never could."

That quote reminds me of the time that I was "advising" a National Guard unit in a an exercise in a remote part of Panama (when Noreiga was still our pal). A Special Forces unit had been there for 30 days prior, winning hearts and minds. The Guard unit was pretty weak. On the hardcore-social club axis, they were solidly on the "social club" side of things. But I tell you, even though they could hardly speak a few words of Spanish, within a few days they were the locals best buds. And when the SF reconned us, the locals ratted them out to us, even though nobody in the unit had seen the recon. When the SF attacked us, the Guardsmen had figured out the direction of attack from the locals' reports and were waiting for them. I learned a couple of things that week.

Posted by 11A5S 2006-02-26 23:53|| 2006-02-26 23:53|| Front Page Top

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