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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Notes On The War On Terror, From Major General Pete Chiarelli |
| 2005-03-20 |
| Glenn Reynolds posted an email of a summary of a speech by Gen. Chiarelli, of the First Cavalry Division. The whole thing is worth reading, but I put some noteworthy excerpts below, with especially noteworthy bits italicized: 1. While units of the Cav served all over Iraq, he spoke mostly of Baghdad and more specifically Sadr City, the big slum on the eastern side of the Tigris River. He pointed out that Baghdad is, in geography, is about the size of Austin. Austin has 600,000 to 700,000 people. Baghdad has 6 to7 million people. 2. The Cav lost 28 main battle tanks. He said one of the big lessons learned is that, contrary to doctrine going in, M1-A2s and Bradleys are needed, preferred and devastating in urban combat and he is going to make that point to the JCS next week while they are considering downsizing armor... ... 8. Said bin Laden and Zarqawi made a HUGE mistake when bin laden went public with naming Zarqawi the "prince" of al Quaeda in Iraq. Said that what the Iraqis saw and heard was a Saudi telling a Jordainan that his job was to kill Iraqis. HUGE mistake. It was one of the biggest factors in getting Iraqis who were on the "fence" to jump off on the side of the coalition and the new gov't. 9. Said the MSM was making a big, and wrong, deal out of the religious sects. Said Iraqis are incredibly nationalistic. They are Iraqis first and then say they are Muslum but the Shi'a - Sunni thing is just not that big a deal to them... ... 11. Said that he did not lose a single tanker truck carrying oil and gas over the roads of Iraq. Think about that. All the attacks we saw on TV with IEDs hitting trucks but he didn't lose one. Why? Army Aviation. Praised his air units and said they made the decision early on that every convoy would have helicopter air cover. Said aviators in that unit were hitting the 1,000 hour mark (sound familiar?). Said a convoy was supposed to head out but stopped at the gates of a compound on the command of an E6. He asked the SSG what the hold up was. E6 said, "Air , sir." He wondered what was wrong with the air, not realizing what the kid was talking about. Then the AH-64s showed up and the E6 said, "That air sir." And then moved out. 12. Said one of the biggest problems was money and regs. There was a $77 million gap between the supplemental budget and what he needed in cash on the ground to get projects started. Said he spent most of his time trying to get money. Said he didn't do much as a "combat commander" because the the war he was fighting was a war at the squad and platoon level. Said that his NCOs were winning the war and it was a sight to behold. 13. Said that of all the money appropriated for Iraq, not a cent was earmarked for agriculture. Said that Iraq could feed itself completely and still have food for export but no one thought about it. Said the Cav started working with Texas A&M on ag projects and had special hybrid seeds sent to them through Jordan. TAM analyzed soil samples and worked out how and what to plant. Said he had an E7 from Belton, TX (just down the road from Ft. Hood) who was almost single-handedly rebuilding the ag industry in the Baghdad area... So a lot of the old-fashioned military hardware like tanks, IFV's, and helicopters still proved useful, as did the practice of instilling NCO's with enough authority to deal with situations as they saw fit. |
| Posted by:Phil Fraering |
| #5 this is a f@#$$ing Retarded article the Iraqis are kicking american turky and boloni sandwich raised morons every day and the bodies that are spitting on they streets, are that of dead amerikan joes |
| Posted by: stickyour democracyinyourarses 2005-03-20 3:45:41 AM |
| #4 Always remember,Phil,in Islam only the bugeree not the buggerer is considered queen,uncle, easy,easy,roger. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-03-20 8:02:44 AM |
| #3 Read the whole Instapundit post. After the notes, there are recaps of several Bud ovations. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-03-20 7:38:42 AM |
| #2 What is about Arabs and homosexual imagery. Are they all ArseBandits? |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-03-20 4:35:49 AM |
| #1 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
| Posted by: stickyour democracyinyourarses TROLL 2005-03-20 3:45:41 AM |