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

[Red Dawn]

2 Busloads of Scum Fedeyeen blown to smithereens!!

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: MoobyTheGoldenCalf

Originally posted by: StormRider
I really haven't seen this mentioned much but I noticed in USA Today that there are several soldiers missing from that first ambush on the supply line that resulted in POWs being displayed on Iraqi TV. Two of those are women. So that makes it 3 women who are missing or captured. I'm hoping that the one they showed on TV will be okay (because the eyes of the world are watching) but I'm worried about the two missing women (along with the missing male soldiers) listed below:

-------
USA Today

In addition, seven others were classified as missing from An Nasiriyah. Among them: Army Pvt. Brandon Sloan, 19, of Bedford Heights, Ohio, Pfc. Lori Piestewa, 22, of Tuba City, Ariz., and Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, supply clerk, of Palestine, W.Va., family members said. The names of four others were not available.
--------

Here's a CNN story about Pfc. Jessica Lynch: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/03/24/missing.soldier.ap/index.html

She seems like a sweet young girl. I hope she's okay. I hope they are all okay and will be home safe soon.

 

[MoobyTheGoldenCalf]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
2 Busloads of Scum Fedeyeen blown to smithereens!!

Two busloads of charred corpses lay on the road north of Nassiriya on Tuesday, apparently Iraqis killed in bombing aimed at stopping fighters reinforcing a key river crossing against U.S. Marines.

C'mon Al Jazeera! Where are the pics!?!?!?

 

[ThePresence]

Reports coming from CenCom: A US F-16 apparently engaged a US Patriot missile battery. No loss of life, but plenty of damage.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: ThePresence
Reports coming from CenCom: A US F-16 apparently engaged a US Patriot missile battery. No loss of life, but plenty of damage.

Christ, we only have a handful of them in Kuwait you'd think that we'd know were they were.

 

[MoobyTheGoldenCalf]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030325/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_briefing&cid=540&ncid=1478

U.S. F-16 Jet in Friendly Fire Incident

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - In a friendly fire incident, an American F-16 fired on a U.S. Patriot missile battery in Iraq after the battery's radar locked on the plane, the U.S. Central Command said Tuesday. No U.S. casualties were reported.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Just on CNN, Saudi Arabia offering to broker a "Peace Plan" between Iraq & coalition...

 

[ThePresence]

I think the question is more why the Patriots are locking onto freindly aircaft than why they fired on it. They may have even known that it was a US patriot when they fired on it, but hey, if the Patriot is gonna engage the jet, they gotta take it out.

 

[jemcam]

Originally posted by: ThePresence
I think the question is more why the Patriots are locking onto freindly aircaft than why they fired on it. They may have even known that it was a US patriot when they fired on it, but hey, if the Patriot is gonna engage the jet, they gotta take it out.

I don't claim to know the answers on how our planes can distinguish the difference on being locked on from enemy and friendly, but if the pilot had a warning that he was being painted, that means that someone is attempting to acquire him. In that case, he's got to defend himself.

 

[rickn]

actually, the patriots should never even get so far as to firing on friendly. It was my understanding there is several levels of engagement(not really the right word I am looking for) before they actually fire, and that included human confirmation. But apparently the fighters feel threatened enough with just a lock-on to take it out. Expensive mistake

 

[DaveH]

I teach a college class called _Ethics and the Internet,_ and I am looking for articles about the role that the internet is playing in this war.

This might include things like propaganda, chat rooms/BBS discussions that are affecting public opinion, connections between the people of various nations involved in the war, etc. Replies, or especially PMs or emails with interesting links you have found would be MOST appreciated.

The Friday political wrapup on _The NewsHour with Jim Lerher_ isn't primarily on this subject, but has an interesting mention of it: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/jan-june03/sb_03-21.html.

TIA for your help, and all the best to those who have loved ones involved in this conflict!

 

[Grasshopper27]

Originally posted by: MoobyTheGoldenCalf
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030325/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_briefing&cid=540&ncid=1478

U.S. F-16 Jet in Friendly Fire Incident

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - In a friendly fire incident, an American F-16 fired on a U.S. Patriot missile battery in Iraq after the battery's radar locked on the plane, the U.S. Central Command said Tuesday. No U.S. casualties were reported.

Friendly Fire happens in war, shame, but it does...

: ) Hopper

 

[CaptnKirk]

Patriot radar will 'Lock-on' and track anything that enters its security zone. Both Patriot Command Electronics and Coalition Aircraft carry
IFF electronics ( Identify - Friend of Foe ) that interplays with signal data - to either hand-over for launch capability, or deny access for
launch if the perceived target is 'Friend' and has matched the code command data string. The Piolt's airborne system may not have
been able to read the ground batterys IFF, as it may be limited to the Patriot's capacity for identification of intruders only -
in other words - the Ground dosen't carry Identification Signal to send up to the aircraft, but recognizes the aircraft as friendly.
Also, IFF codes are changed many times during the day, and the aircraft or ground station may not have rolled up the code.

Ground radar from the Patriot guides the intercept of aircraft, whereas when dealing with an inbound missle threat, the control of
the Patriot is guidance from satellie tracking of the flight path of the missle to command the launch timeframe and proximity for intercept.

The job of a Patriot is to place a debris field directly in front of the target to disable the engines in the case of an aircraft, or to cause
catastrophic collision damage with as many large fragments as possible to deflect the missle from its intended course.

 

[Grasshopper27]

Six Iraqi Satellite Jamming Devices Destroyed

Six satellite jamming devices, which Iraq was using to try to thwart American precision guided weapons, were destroyed and have had "no effect" on U.S. military operations, a U.S. general said Tuesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82115,00.html

President Bush had called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to complain about the alleged sales of high-tech equipment, which could pose a threat to American troops. The Kremlin denied the allegations that Moscow had broken U.N. sanctions to sell such devices to Saddam Hussein's regime.

 

[Queasy]

1 Apache and 1 BlackHawk Helicoptor missing in sandstorm

 

[Grasshopper27]

Originally posted by: Queasy
1 Apache and 1 BlackHawk Helicoptor missing in sandstorm

Yikes, seeing some of the video of the sandstorms, I wouldn't want to fly a helicopter in that, even with sand filters installed (they have limits)

: ) Hopper

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: rickn
actually, the patriots should never even get so far as to firing on friendly. It was my understanding there is several levels of engagement(not really the right word I am looking for) before they actually fire, and that included human confirmation. But apparently the fighters feel threatened enough with just a lock-on to take it out. Expensive mistake

A Patriot already took out a British Torando in this war. I can understand why the pilots feel threatened.

 

[Fencer128]

BBC correspondent says guns and military supplies found in a Nasiriya hospital.

Will post link when available.

Andy

 

[ThePresence]

A bit OT perhaps, but there are fighter Jets overhead in NYC. Specific threat?

 

[Grasshopper27]

Originally posted by: ThePresence
A bit OT perhaps, but there are fighter Jets overhead in NYC. Specific threat?

There have been fighters patroling NYC since 9/11

 

[MoobyTheGoldenCalf]

Originally posted by: ThePresence
A bit OT perhaps, but there are fighter Jets overhead in NYC. Specific threat?

I was under the impression that they had been patroling over NYC and DC for some time now....

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: Grasshopper27

Originally posted by: ThePresence
A bit OT perhaps, but there are fighter Jets overhead in NYC. Specific threat?

There have been fighters patroling NYC since 9/11

Really? I live in NYC and haven't much seen or heard them, not consistantly anyway. Right after 9/11 they were all over, but now I see and hear them again.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Anyone else get a little pissed when you see Iraqis using $10-20 million dollars of US tax payer money as a jungle gym?

 

[Mookow]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Anyone else get a little pissed when you see Iraqis using $10-20 million dollars of US tax payer money as a jungle gym?

Lets just hope they were still exercising when the airstrike came in....

 

[spaceman]

breaking news:
Uprising against Saddam in Basrah being aided by UK.
edit:skynews reports via fox television.