See also - http://kmc.crosswalk.com
Sharper Minds Daily
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Mosul: First person accounts |
| 2004-12-22 |
| Edited for brevity. Hat tip: Michelle Malkin Sgt. Evan Byler, of the 276th [Engineer Battalion of the Virginia National Guard], steadied himself on one of the concrete bomb shelters. He was eating chicken tenders and macaroni when the bomb hit. The blast knocked him out of his chair. When the smoke cleared, Byler took off his shirt and wrapped it around a seriously wounded soldier. Byler held the bloody shirt in his hand, not quite sure what to do with it. "It's not the first close call I have had here," said Byler, a Fauquier County, Va., resident who survived a blast from an improvised explosive device while riding in a vehicle earlier this year. Byler started walking back to his base when he saw a soldier collapse from shock on the side of the road. Byler and 1st Lt. Shawn Otto of Williamsburg, Va., also of the 276th, put the grieving soldier on a passing pickup truck. The 276th, with about 500 troops, had made it a year without losing a soldier and is preparing to return home in about a month. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #14 I am surprised that it took so long for such an attack to happen. Whenever one deal with Muslims, betrayal and treachery are to be expected. Unfortunately, there is no way around it. But, if I were a soldier, I would never, ever trust a Muslim, even if the latter were an infant! |
| Posted by: Anonymous4724 2004-12-22 8:22:18 PM |
| #13 See also - http://kmc.crosswalk.com Sharper Minds Daily |
| Posted by: Radio Guy 2004-12-22 7:27:48 PM |
| #12 BTQ: ZF this is a reserve engineer unit, not infantry. Dismounted tankers and artillerymen are serving as combat infantry. There's not a lot of need for setting up new airfields or bridges while under fire in Iraq. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-12-22 6:02:24 PM |
| #11 ZF this is a reserve engineer unit, not infantry. |
| Posted by: Brett_the_Quarkian 2004-12-22 5:57:41 PM |
| #10 ZF, I can't really explain it but something in your posting simply doesn't sound "right". I also don't think that the U.S. troops think alike. They see allied troops as brothers in arms, not "tokens". Sorry, just a gut feeling. You may be right with your cold reasoning. But it still doesn't sound right. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-12-22 5:55:23 PM |
| #9 TGA: ZF, with all respect, but you make the Australian contribution (and of other participating nations) sound like a nice Christmas decoration. I don't think that the Australians would appreciate, nor would the troops of other countries which HAVE suffered casualties. They are nice to have around, but not vital for the war effort. They are there to show solidarity, and many Americans appreciate that. Like I said, we will remember their contributions - token as they are. We will equally remember the Germans, the French, the Belgians and all the other countries that were asked, but did not contribute. Take it from me - what they contributed is just a downpayment on an American guarantee of their sovereignty. In return for their token help, American troops might one day have to die in the tens of thousands to keep them free. Whether they appreciate my comments or not is irrelevant. If they want to pull their troops out, it will save us from having to deal with yet another major obligation in return for what is in reality token assistance. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-12-22 5:39:09 PM |
| #8 ZF, with all respect, but you make the Australian contribution (and of other participating nations) sound like a nice Christmas decoration. I don't think that the Australians would appreciate, nor would the troops of other countries which HAVE suffered casualties. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-12-22 5:21:45 PM |
| #7 lex: Then again, a lone suicide bomber who infiltrated the camp seems more like a security lapse than a full-scale insurgency. The overrunning of the police stations was a throwback to the situation from a year ago. It's not that it was a major setback - just that it revealed less than good intelligence in Mosul about the enemy's strength and dispositions. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-12-22 5:16:05 PM |
| #6 TGA: The Australians haven't had casualties in Iraq either. Are you saying the Aussies are not doing their job? The Australians, Koreans and Japanese aren't doing the same job that American troops are, which is going after the guerrillas day in and day out. They are helpful for preserving American public support for existing international alliances, but have little to do with defeating the enemy in Iraq.* (Perhaps if the Waffen SS were deployed in Iraq, things would be different...) * This is why they're there, in spite of political majorities opposed to their deployment - to preserve their alliance relationship with Uncle Sam. We will remember. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-12-22 5:13:12 PM |
| #5 Agree that Mosul should have been pacified by now. Then again, a lone suicide bomber who infiltrated the camp seems more like a security lapse than a full-scale insurgency. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-12-22 5:11:14 PM |
| #4 AHM: I don't understand your implication here ZF. Are you saying that the 276th is somehow not doing it's job? Not in the fight? You need to clarify. That is what I am suggesting. Area commanders decide how aggressive they're going to be. If they decide not to risk casualties, they can hunker down in their base camps. Mosul should have been pacified a long time ago, given its large Kurdish and Shiite contingent. The large scale attacks in Mosul of the past several months should not have occurred. It sounds like the area's commander tried the softly-softly approach so lauded by the Brits. Would it have made any difference in US casualties if the terrorists had been aggressively pursued earlier? Maybe not. Politically, it has become an issue, because observers think in terms of news cycles rather than the years or decades that guerrilla wars typically take. Guerrilla wars take awhile, unless you're willing to undertake the kind of scorched earth approaches used by the Vietnamese, the Soviets and the Chinese to suppress various subjugated nationalities. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-12-22 5:07:19 PM |
| #3 The Australians haven't had casualties in Iraq either. Are you saying the Aussies are not doing their job? |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-12-22 4:52:19 PM |
| #2 I don't understand your implication here ZF. Are you saying that the 276th is somehow not doing it's job? Not in the fight? You need to clarify. |
| Posted by: AllahHateMe 2004-12-22 4:46:24 PM |
| #1 Article: The 276th, with about 500 troops, had made it a year without losing a soldier and is preparing to return home in about a month. It is possible to sustain no casualties if you leave the terrorists alone. But the bill eventually comes due. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-12-22 4:37:18 PM |