Article

2004-07-08 Iraq-Jordan

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Posted by Anonymous5089 2004-07-08 8:35:27 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 American soldiers responded to the attack 25 minutes later

Damn, compare and contrast. Counter battery seems slow.

Posted by Shipman 2004-07-08 9:30:33 AM|| 2004-07-08 9:30:33 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 They need to build roads around these Sunni towns,throw up a berm and barb wire,let the women and children out and just sit...nothing goes in and nothing else comes out.

Posted by Jason 2004-07-08 9:50:27 AM|| 2004-07-08 9:50:27 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Damn, compare and contrast. Counter battery seems slow.

Like the enemy is going to wait 25 minutes to be pounded in return.

Adjust your tactics and operations, people. The price for trying to kill U.S. personnel needs to be made very, very high.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2004-07-08 11:39:23 AM|| 2004-07-08 11:39:23 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Yeah, that "25 minutes" sort of leaps out at you, doesn't it? Not to mention that if the enemy is smart, they're shooting-and-scooting from a schoolyard, near a market, or somewhere else counter-fire (blind, as this appears to have been) will kill baby ducks and little kittens. A lot we don't know about this situation, as usual, but it is frustrating and infuriating all the same.

Jason's idea is similar to what I've though should have been done a long time ago, at least in Fallujah and Baquouba -- build bypass roads so the long-haul traffic doesn't need to go through the worst towns; put a strict vehicle lock-down with checkpoint around the towns; aggressively patrol/bribe/squeeze the locals and their economy so long as they harbor the idiots. The Triangle is oil-free and dependent on transport for their ag and thus very vulnerable to economic pressure. There may have been good reasons not to do so, but it seemed to me last summer that that particular region (politically and economically weak within Iraq, and the source of 99% of the trouble) should have been dealt with both more ruthlessly and more cleverly.

Posted by Verlaine 2004-07-08 3:56:10 PM|| 2004-07-08 3:56:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 The Triangle is oil-free and dependent on transport for their ag and thus very vulnerable to economic pressure.

Whoa, don't keep these ideas to yourself.

Posted by Shipman 2004-07-08 4:06:18 PM|| 2004-07-08 4:06:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Agree, Verlaine, certainly with the idea of bypass roads. Hell, we build ring-road interstates with 3-digit numbers in this country to move the traffic. Same thing ought to be good enough for the Triangle. That alone would make convoys less vulnerable. Might also ensure that the hard boyz have to break cover to come at us.

Posted by Steve White 2004-07-08 4:16:01 PM|| 2004-07-08 4:16:01 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 actually my boys tell me the rag heads are setting up their mortars in the back of pick-up's and moving after a few rounds. Prolly the reason why they're hard to hit and also why the Iraqis usually suck at landing rounds on us (except in this case unfortunately). Seems like air needs to be called in first. Though 25 min's was prolly the time it took some brass-hole to make the decision to return fire.

Posted by Jarhead 2004-07-08 10:33:48 PM|| 2004-07-08 10:33:48 PM|| Front Page Top

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