Article

2008-08-20 Southeast Asia

Thailand having a successful surge of their own

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by trailing wife 2008-08-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 I think we can learn a lesson from this in Afghanistan too, where 9 soldiers were killed a week back, saying they were outnumber by 200+ gun men on three sides.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/19/afghan.attack.survivor/index.html

We also saw our operations in Iraq improve as more men were on the ground.

A leaner Army is great for assaults and cost but more troops speak for them self when we have to patrol areas full of scum hiding within the population.

Posted by WAMA 2008-08-20 02:02|| 2008-08-20 02:02|| Front Page Top

#2 The major cause of the surge success was the defection of thousands of Sunnis from the insurgency to the Awakening Councils and Sons of Iraq.

If something similar happens in Thailand, it might be meaningful, otherwise it is likely to be a lull in the fighting as the insurgency modifies its tactics.

Posted by Cherelet and Tenille1095 2008-08-20 03:25|| 2008-08-20 03:25|| Front Page Top

#3 Apparently we'll be sending some 12,000 more troops to buttress the effort in Afghanistan, starting in November (3 brigades plus support). link

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-08-20 09:09|| 2008-08-20 09:09|| Front Page Top

#4 Rumsfeld was being disingenuous when he suggested that less troops was better. Given Uncle Sam's prodigious logistical capabilities, more troops are always better. The problem was that more troops in Afghanistan would have taken away from operations in Iraq. And a bigger overall army would have taken money away from important weapons programs - necessary for fighting big opponents like China and Russia - that had been deferred for over a decade. Basically, Bush decided to fight the war on the cheap, and Rumsfeld had to cover for him by making trade-offs between force size and new equipment.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-08-20 18:06|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-08-20 18:06|| Front Page Top

23:58 ed
23:58 liberalhawk
23:57 trailing wife
23:56 liberalhawk
23:52 liberalhawk
23:49 newc
23:44 Sgt. Mom
23:41 trailing wife
23:26 Muggsy Glink
22:48 3dc
22:48 ed
22:43 Pappy
22:42 liberalhawk
22:41 3dc
22:41 liberalhawk
22:40 Besoeker
22:39 ed
22:38 liberalhawk
22:32 Danielle
22:31 ed
22:30 liberalhawk
22:30 badanov
22:27 liberalhawk
22:27 Shieldwolf