Article

2004-04-20 Iraq-Jordan

Border patrols are halting the influx of foreign fighters

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Posted by Dan Darling 2004-04-20 12:11:43 AM|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 This, by far, was the biggest mistake we made durign the liberation of Iraq: we disbanded the Iraqi Army instead of sending it to secure the border areas - and we could have vetted the officers and men out in the border areas before we allowed them to retain their positions or return to central Iraq.

And we didnt have enough troops to roll up the Sunni triangle area quickly (mainly thanks ot the backstabbing cowardly Turks blocking the 4th ID's move into the area)..

Only now are we securing the borders agaions the terrorists from Syria.

Hopefully we will soon do the same against the Iranians ant the IRG infiltrators.

What would be good is to capture UNIFORMED Syrian military on the wrong side of the border and parade them on TV before we return them to Assad.

Posted by OldSpook 2004-04-20 12:27:59 AM|| 2004-04-20 12:27:59 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 OS, are we sure we could have maintained control of the Iraqi army if we had to remove 2/3 or 3/4 of its officers? And the ones who weren't thoroughly corrupt, I understand, were pretty incompetent.

Posted by Steve White 2004-04-20 12:44:51 AM|| 2004-04-20 12:44:51 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 "tribal connections"? -- Pure B.S.
"vast desert areas"? -- that's why land mines were invented. Surely a year was enough time to plant several million out there along those hostile borders.

Posted by Tresho 2004-04-20 1:25:13 AM|| 2004-04-20 1:25:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 OS, I agree with you that we should have secured the Syrian border, but with Coalition forces. I remember very early in the game we knew about the convoys going from Iraq to Syria. WMD were suspected but nothing came of it. We knew there was cross traffic across the border. We had the hardware at the time to literally smash hell out of any border area that didn't look right. I'm sure Gen Meyers/Franks had a reason but I've often wondered why? The war was won early on and those two fine Generals knew it, even though the broke-dicks from the media didn't. Chine

Posted by Chiner 2004-04-20 4:33:49 AM|| 2004-04-20 4:33:49 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 OS: I would nominate the failure to control the arms depots and ammo dumps after the war for mistake #1.

I think that the plan was that we were going to try to retain the Iraqi Army in some capacity. There were articles in the press that we had called all of these Iraqi generals on their cell phones and they were going to park their units, be given "honors of combat," and then be called upon to help after then invasion. In reality, all of the units just melted away. Mass desertion was the order of the day, not mass surrender. That was another cultural conceit of ours, I suppose. We thought that we were fighting European armies that would stand in formation and surrender their colors.

The problem with conquering an authoritarian society is that when you remove the apparatus of repression and control, things just explode. There are no community-based institutions to step up and maintain control when the state collapses. As we saw in the former USSR, often the only remaining institution capable of large scale, coordinated action is organized crime. I didn't fully understand this before Iraq. It's a hard way to learn.

Posted by 11A5S 2004-04-20 8:58:59 AM|| 2004-04-20 8:58:59 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 11A5S: That was another cultural conceit of ours, I suppose. We thought that we were fighting European armies that would stand in formation and surrender their colors.

Live and learn. Iraq may turn out to be a lot like Operation Torch in North Africa - a training ground for the next phase of the War on Terror. I'm just relieved that we've not suffered anything like the setback at Kasserine Pass.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-04-20 10:22:12 AM|| 2004-04-20 10:22:12 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 The deaths of five marines in a 14-hour firefight on Saturday in Qusaiba, a remote town near the Syrian border, underscores the fierce resistance facing American troops in areas far from the fighting in Falluja, the Sunni town west of Baghdad.

A little napalm should take care of that "fierce resistance".

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2004-04-20 11:00:06 AM|| 2004-04-20 11:00:06 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 WOW! military patrols, drones, detectors can control the influx of illegal immigrants??? Where else could this be applied to?? hmmmmmmm

Posted by Frank G 2004-04-20 11:07:36 AM|| 2004-04-20 11:07:36 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 I would love to see a military guy on the news smile and say, "hold your horses, no need to come to Iraq you rascals. We'll be over to Syria soon enough."

Posted by ruprecht 2004-04-20 5:45:55 PM|| 2004-04-20 5:45:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Frank G : As a lifelong resident of Southern California, I say that you must be dreamin'. The ACLU will come out of their office in Beverly Hills and sob about Orwell and "1984" tactics.
The LA Mayor and his flunquis on the City council have this amnesty thing goin'. Very few people care to fight for some useful deployments of troops and drones.

It would be just like they did when we were getting our Terminatin' Governor. TRrying to convince courts people were "Disenfranchised because they are to stupid to vote" (oops - off topic)

Posted by Anonymous4052 2004-04-20 6:03:34 PM|| 2004-04-20 6:03:34 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Anon4052 - lifelong resident of Chula Vista and Santee (San Diego suburbs)- so I know about what I'm talking here too. All it will take is one turban sneaking across the Mexican border to do a boom and it will be shut down - forever. This sick pressure relief valve for the Mexican incompetence will stop and be controlled., eventually, and the socialists and "immigration activists" be damned

Posted by Frank G 2004-04-20 6:23:46 PM|| 2004-04-20 6:23:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 I'm not buying the "shoulda kept the old Iraq Army" story. The new volunteers won't fight, why would Sadaam's lackeys do any better. The only people in the country with any balls left are the Kurds and the fedayeen.

Posted by Anonymous4381 2004-04-20 6:36:45 PM|| 2004-04-20 6:36:45 PM|| Front Page Top

16:16 Glyph
23:48 Alaska Paul
23:17 Frank G
23:11 Frank G
23:09 Not Mike Moore
12:30 AntiPasto
12:27 Antiwar TROLL
09:43 muck4doo
07:04 Shipman
07:02 Shipman
07:01 Shipman
04:22 Jen
04:18 Bulldog
04:07 Jen
04:04 Super Hose
03:36 Jen
03:14 Super Hose
03:11 Super Hose
02:49 Jen
02:46 Jen
02:43 Jen
02:40 Jen
02:19 Not Mike Moore
02:07 Not Mike Moore