**OFFICIAL WAR THREAD** 7th Calvary fights off Iraqi attack; Bush seeks 75 billion for war

[conjur]

Originally posted by: PG
the Guardian reported in February 1999 Saddam met with bin Laden:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,314700,00.html

Wonder if that led to the aircraft training terrorist camp that's reported to be in Iraq?

 

[Milkman95]

anything new on the apache pilots?

 

[FuZoR]

two pilots are alive ... pows...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20029-2003Mar24.html

 

[Red Dawn]

American Military success has impressed and startled the Russians and their Generals

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
American Military success has impressed and startled the Russians and their Generals

While that article seems to praise the success of the campaign so far, this paragraph just reeks of rhetoric:

The troops in Kuwait were not ready Thursday morning to make an immediate move into Iraqi territory, which would have reduced the danger of being hit by ballistic missiles. In fact, the offensive was planned to begin at dusk in order to fully exploit allied supremacy in night vision and radar equipment. From dawn till dusk on Thursday, the servicemen and women of the allied forces, together with the citizens of Kuwait, were sitting ducks just because someone in Washington had a sudden brainstorm. There are indications that General Tommy Franks, the overall commander of the operation, got so mad over the abortive first attack that he refused until Saturday to attend preplanned press briefings in the central command headquarters in Qatar.

Bush received rather credible evidence from the CIA as to the whereabouts of Saddam and key top military officers. Taking out the upper echelon might have steeled the resolve in some of the Iraqi troops but without direction, they would be lost and confused and once supplies ran out, desperate for food/water and more likely to surrender.

And the ground war wasn't set to begin that night anyway so it doesn't matter if the first strike was targeted at that residence or if it was the first day of the (oh heck...I'm gonna say it) 'shock and awe' which was aerial/missile attack alone.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
American Military success has impressed and startled the Russians and their Generals

While that article seems to praise the success of the campaign so far, this paragraph just reeks of rhetoric:

The troops in Kuwait were not ready Thursday morning to make an immediate move into Iraqi territory, which would have reduced the danger of being hit by ballistic missiles. In fact, the offensive was planned to begin at dusk in order to fully exploit allied supremacy in night vision and radar equipment. From dawn till dusk on Thursday, the servicemen and women of the allied forces, together with the citizens of Kuwait, were sitting ducks just because someone in Washington had a sudden brainstorm. There are indications that General Tommy Franks, the overall commander of the operation, got so mad over the abortive first attack that he refused until Saturday to attend preplanned press briefings in the central command headquarters in Qatar.

Bush received rather credible evidence from the CIA as to the whereabouts of Saddam and key top military officers. Taking out the upper echelon might have steeled the resolve in some of the Iraqi troops but without direction, they would be lost and confused and once supplies ran out, desperate for food/water and more likely to surrender.

And the ground war wasn't set to begin that night anyway so it doesn't matter if the first strike was targeted at that residence or if it was the first day of the (oh heck...I'm gonna say it) 'shock and awe' which was aerial/missile attack alone.

Considering that is was a Ruskie News Columnist I tended to overlook a few pointed crticisms

 

[Bluga]

Huge sandstorm coming up.

 

[Grasshopper27]

The result is a one-sided "colonial" war in which the Iraqis shoot but do not hit much, while they themselves are massacred. The finest army in the world would soon lose its morale in such circumstances. The frontline Iraqi units are crumbling and this will spread until Hussein's army and regime completely collapses.

There are also global repercussions: The United States is proving that it can win easily and without serious losses -- not only in air but also ground campaigns -- against any army in the world (except maybe for the British or French, but how long can these nations keep up with the pace of U.S. procurement of new weapons?)

Many Russian generals today are in a panic clamoring for rapid rearmament, but Russia does not have the money to re-equip its oversized military.

Nowadays any nation that is not on good terms with the United States should look out: The marines and infantry may be coming.

 

[Grasshopper27]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
American Military success has impressed and startled the Russians and their Generals

Thanks for the link, interesting article!!!

: ) Hopper

 

[BooGiMaN]

Ap news reports that we have complained to the Putin that russian companies are selling the iraqui's night vision goggles and gps jammers which disrupt missile and planes gps

Russia denies it, but Putin told bush he would look into it

 

[ThePresence]

If the Iraqi's conitinue to abuse prisoners, they will open an enormous can of whoopass.

 

[BCYL]

Any word on how those Republican Guards (who shot down the Apache) did? I read in one report that said the Apaches didnt accomplish their mission, and many of them suffered quite a bit of damage (one Apache got hit by a RPG but was able to fly back to base w/ 1 engine)...

 

[Red Dawn]

I wonder if the American Forces are going to be blaring Hard Rock towards the Iraqi's prior to attacking them. They did that in Panama and the last Gulf War. Maybe they should be blasting sounds of tanks and Bombs at them for hours prior to attacking them. Maybe even Air Raid Sirens. Anything to rattle the Wags prior to going in for the kill!

 

[Stark]

Pray for a Soldier

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: BCYL
Any word on how those Republican Guards (who shot down the Apache) did? I read in one report that said the Apaches didnt accomplish their mission, and many of them suffered quite a bit of damage (one Apache got hit by a RPG but was able to fly back to base w/ 1 engine)...

The AH-64 are built to absorb a lot of punishment. The Longbow is capable of identifying more targets than they have ordinances for and actually comunicating them to other AH-64's for them to target and destroy.

 

[Bluga]

Apache sucks, way over rated, shot down by peasants.

 

[Corsairpro]

Originally posted by: Bluga
Apache sucks, way over rated, shot down by peasants.

apaches are awesome, its poor pilot control or poor situational awareness that leads to being shot down, not a crappy vehicle

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: Bluga
Apache sucks, way over rated, shot down by peasants.

Your trolling skills are way over rated, shot down by your average American

 

[alchemize]

Let's put things into perspective here, since the news agencies can't seem to.

How many tanks has Iraq taken out? 0
How many armoured personnel carriers/humvees has Iraq taken out? 0? 1?
How many artillery pieces has Iraq taken out? 0
How many helicopters has Iraq taken out? 1? 2? (tied with accidents?)
How many B-52 Bombers has Iraq taken out? 0
How many B-2 Bombers has Iraq taken out? 0
How many F-117, A-10 Thunderbolts, F-16 or F-18 Fighters has Iraq taken out? 0? Maybe 1?
How many tanks has Iraq taken out? 0
How many human casualties has Iraq caused? maybe 500 wounded/killed out of 300,000? 0.167%?

In 5 days, we've rolled over about 60% of their country. In 7 days we'll be knocking on the door of Baghdad. In 365 days, we'll look back at this and say "wow...think if we had thrown our full military might at them". This is a Clinton-leftover scaled down military here

 

[Bluga]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: Bluga
Apache sucks, way over rated, shot down by peasants.

Your trolling skills are way over rated, shot down by your average American

same to you.

 

[Fencer128]

Hi,

How is it that so few troops are involved this time around (~300,000) as opposed to ~500,000 for the last gulf war? I would have thought that since a full scale invasion is on - as opposed to just a push out of Kuwait - a bigger force would be in use?

Cheers,

Andy

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: Fencer128
Hi,

How is it that so few troops are involved this time around (~300,000) as opposed to ~500,000 for the last gulf war? I would have thought that since a full scale invasion is on - as opposed to just a push out of Kuwait - a bigger force would be in use?

Cheers,

Andy

There's fewer Iraqi Troops involved this time

 

[NFS4]

What happens if we end up crushing Saddam, taking over Baghdad, lose a couple hundred soldiers, then find out that Saddam didn't have any WOMD?

 

[Bulk Beef]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: Fencer128
Hi,

How is it that so few troops are involved this time around (~300,000) as opposed to ~500,000 for the last gulf war? I would have thought that since a full scale invasion is on - as opposed to just a push out of Kuwait - a bigger force would be in use?

Cheers,

Andy

There's fewer Iraqi Troops involved this time

Yup. Iraqi army is about 30-40% what it was.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: NFS4
What happens if we end up crushing Saddam, taking over Baghdad, lose a couple hundred soldiers, then find out that Saddam didn't have any WOMD?

Be Shocked and Awed!