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2003-02-28 Iraq
A Time to Gather Stones Together
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Posted by Pete Stanley 2003-02-28 10:42 am|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Let's be clear - we do not have all the intel. What we do have, is common knowledge. The logistics side I believe we have covered. The tactics is what worries me. Lets hope we don't go soft on the air strikes due to political reservations. Go in to win. Let's roll!
Posted by Rex Mundi 2003-02-28 03:25:53||   2003-02-28 03:25:53|| Front Page Top

#2 of possibly more significance is this item: "The Russian government has cancelled the naval deployment to the Indian Ocean according to the BBC on February 27."

They are staying away, now. Which might indicate that we are rolling soon and they know it.
Posted by Ben 2003-02-28 05:05:34||   2003-02-28 05:05:34|| Front Page Top

#3 Actually the significance of that could be not that they're staying away, but that they're going somewhere else instead. But where? Closer in?
Posted by RW 2003-02-28 07:27:22||   2003-02-28 07:27:22|| Front Page Top

#4 The hangers are needed to perform maintenance. You need controlled conditions to work on the radar absorbing material (RAM). Plus they wash the skin before flights to clean any dirt that might reflect radar. They'd cycle the planes through before any mission. The press likes to blow this thing up more than it is.
Posted by Steve  2003-02-28 07:38:06||   2003-02-28 07:38:06|| Front Page Top

#5 "Lets hope we don't go soft on the air strikes due to political reservations"

on the contrary, lets not win the battle and lose the war. We are doing this to change the region and drain the swamp that breeds terror. To do that we MUST minimize civilian casualties, and keep intact as much as possible of the infrastructure that Iraq will need and thea WE will need in the post-war.
Posted by liberalhawk 2003-02-28 09:01:15||   2003-02-28 09:01:15|| Front Page Top

#6 The battles for the major urban areas that are Sammy's seat of power will depend on what the civilian population is able to achieve from within. If Sammy can sit on them, then we have to take the cities out. If we are to avoid slugging it out block by block (which is just what Sammy wants) we will need do it asymmetrically which will specifically target the infrastructure. The current approach to Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) is to attack various aspects of infrastructure in a non-linear fashion, disable the enemy's ability to put up a coherent defense and pick off areas of weakened resistence - essentially using the cities inherent instability to defeat itself. By concentrating on infrastructure and avoiding block by block fighting we save lives on both sides - if it is done quickly and decisivley. The problem here is WMD. Something even Von Paulus didn't have to consider. We need to go in with violent speed, fix Sammy's commanders in place and get to them before they deploy any WMD if we are to truly minimze civilian casualties. Sammy will do everything he can to see that the population is brutalized in order to garner international sympathy. Remember, we aren't the problem here - Sammy is.
Posted by Rex Mundi 2003-02-28 11:55:16||   2003-02-28 11:55:16|| Front Page Top

#7 Avoid streetfighting near anything named "The Red October Tractor Factory"...
___________borgboy
Posted by borgboy  2003-02-28 12:09:26||   2003-02-28 12:09:26|| Front Page Top

#8 Yesterday we saw a post about the German army being transported through Russia. Today, we see a post about the "509th Bomb Wing".

I feel like I'm caught in some kind of timewarp.

If I was in Iraq, Its gotta make you sit up nights thinking about having the 509th** lurking about in aircraft you cant detect.

** 509th Bomb Wing was the group that dropped the "fat man" and "little boy" atmoic bombs that ended WWII.
Posted by Frank Martin  2003-02-28 12:44:29|| [varifrank.blogspot.com]  2003-02-28 12:44:29|| Front Page Top

#9 "Red October Tractor Factory" + JDAMs = crater.
Posted by Steve  2003-02-28 12:49:13||   2003-02-28 12:49:13|| Front Page Top

#10 Additional: There were eight civilian aircraft at Fort Campbell on February 28 with additional aircraft en route. According to The Courier-Journal on February 28, nearly 5,000 soldiers from the 101st had been deployed during the week. The article also reported that roughly eight to twelve flights a day have departed Fort Campbell.
Posted by Steve  2003-02-28 14:00:22||   2003-02-28 14:00:22|| Front Page Top

13:54 Fred
07:57 Jeff Brokaw
07:27 raptor
07:12 raptor
06:46 raptor
06:43 raptor
06:43 raptor
06:21 RW
06:18 raptor
05:51 jrosevear
03:09 Ben
02:20 Jennie Taliaferro
00:45 John
00:17 JS
00:09 Anonymous
00:02 Bobbing4Kittens
23:53 CGeib
23:40 CGeib
23:39 Bomb-a-rama
22:13 Paul Moloney
21:30 Hermetic
21:19 Anonymous
21:09 Old Grouch
20:47 Anon









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