| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| BUFFs pound RG column heading south from Baghdad |
| 2003-03-27 |
| Excerpt from a longer CNN.com article: Meanwhile, waves of B-52 bombers pounded a convoy of Iraqi military vehicles overnight before they could reach the lead elements of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Najaf, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, CNN's Walter Rodgers reported Thursday. Air traffic controllers with the U.S. Air Force told Rodgers, embedded with the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry of the 3rd Infantry, that the bombers pounded the convoy "almost into oblivion." The column was believed to have been made up of elite Republican Guard troops. In a briefing from U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said that "most of" the force was destroyed. That's gotta be doing a job on Saddam's morale, assuming a) that he's alive and b) that anyone had the courage to tell him However, Pentagon officials in Washington said they were aware only of "defensive repositioning" of Republican Guard units near Baghdad and had no information on any large columns or convoys of Iraqi vehicles and troops moving toward U.S. forces. OK, now this confuses me. All day yesterday we heard about the 1,000-vehicle convoy heading south from Baghdad to engage I MEF. Then the lace-panties brigade in DeeCee started telling everyone that there was no such formation. Now we hear that they've been flattened, except that it never happened. What would be the value to our team to pretending that this never happened? |
| Posted by:jrosevear |
| #13 Smebody shined an Arclight on the Roach Patrol... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-03-28 02:16:53 |
| #12 Just a guess, but those estimating the 1000 vehicle convoy may have been using the "Afghanistan Civilian Death Estimator™" Version 1.0 which had a known flaw, corrected in Ver 2.0 (AKA: post-'fall of Taliban') Knowledgable users have upgraded with a downloadable patch from reality.com |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-03-27 19:36:25 |
| #11 Saddam's folks watch the news. If our military leadership acts like they aren't paying attention and are preoccupied with more pressing issues, like they are not really focused on that convoy of vehicle streaming out of wherever, the RG will be more inclined to attempt to sneak/dash out, and then they can be hammered by combined forces and air power away from population centers. |
| Posted by: Jonesy 2003-03-27 17:10:19 |
| #10 Who cares what they were DOING, as long as they were DESTROYED. Killing people and breaking things are what soldiers do in war. It's their job. The winners are the ones left alive and whole after the job's done. The destruction of a column of 100 or a column of 1000 is one step closer to winning this war, and freeing the people of Iraq from sadistisein. We can do body counts once Baghdad surrenders, unconditionally. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-03-27 11:40:52 |
| #9 I think we saw highway of death 2 and 3 yesterday. |
| Posted by: Doug De Bono 2003-03-27 10:31:40 |
| #8 Why are they saying "Repositioning"? Disinformation. No Saddam, we dont see your 1000 vehicle column, we are not expecting an attack, our troosp are resting, we dont see an attack coming at all, keep it moving right along |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-03-27 09:59:52 |
| #7 Welcome to the FOG of WAR[tm]. |
| Posted by: Don 2003-03-27 08:50:15 |
| #6 "filled with Iraqi's wearing American uniforms" soon too be seen on al-Jazeera...... |
| Posted by: Dick Saucer 2003-03-27 08:27:41 |
| #5 An embedded reporter stated the convoy was filled with Iraqi's wearing American uniforms. There are no words to express the evil of this regime. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-03-27 07:52:29 |
| #4 CNN has now updated the story quoted above -- they've removed the last paragraph I quoted and substituted this: "Brooks at CentCom said that the Iraqi force was smaller than initial intelligence reports suggested and that "most of" the force was destroyed." For what that's worth. |
| Posted by: jrosevear 2003-03-27 07:41:54 |
| #3 There seems to be a general pulling back from the "1000 vehicle Republican Guard convoy" story. It's now being said that the number of vehicles was smaller and their goal was less aggressive -- more along the lines of redistributing their forces than directly attacking our troops. Rather than interpreting the difference between the stories as being somehow sinister, we should probably chalk it up to fog-of-war. |
| Posted by: Patrick Phillips 2003-03-27 07:38:04 |
| #2 Play dumb and avoid another "Highway of Death" |
| Posted by: WhoMe? 2003-03-27 07:34:43 |
| #1 I suppose the alternative question is "what would be the point of talking about a 1000-truck formation that didn't exist?", except that the stories about the formation seem to come from folks on the ground in-theater and the stories denying its existence seem to come from that five-sided puzzle palace on the potomac... |
| Posted by: jrosevear 2003-03-27 07:10:45 |