You don’t often hear about this kind of artillery “heavy offensive.” Let’s do what needs to be done and get the heck out of Iraq. The U.S. spends billions on military hardware, and we hardly ever use it.
Addendum: Whoa! A Full Metal Jacket scenario. An American soldier murders his commander:
An American army sergeant has been charged with murdering his company commander and another officer in a blast in Iraq this month…The officers were killed by a blast in Tikrit on June 7, a statement by U.S. forces in Iraq said on Friday.An initial investigation indicated the officers were killed by a mortar round but further examination showed the blast was “inconsistent with a mortar attack,” it said. Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan gave no further details…The murder case was the first of its kind among U.S. troops in Iraq itself and the first since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003. (Source)
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 40 comments }
Technically speaking, 550lb bombs are not artillery. Artillery includes shells, mortars, ground-launched missiles, and rockets whereas bombs are air-launched.
Hair-splitting I know
(Though surely better and healthier for both the users and victims of weaponry that it remains unused?)
“Giving our troops the green light to do whatever needs to be done to end this thing” should be the new party line for all Americans.
Instead of nitpicking on a few inconsistencies, errors, and bad apples, our highest commendation should go to the brave men and women in uniform for a thankless job that is being done well.
LaShawn,
The recent incident of “fragging” was more common
than admitted in Viet Nam. In staging area an
American soldier, converted to Muslin, killed and wounded many officers. Colin Powell had big tent and moved cot around every night in his second tour in Nam. I figured in was not just for enemy attacks. The Atomic cannon, 240mm was so heavy it
had to be mounted on railroad tracks in Germany.
This was close to German “Big Bertha” of WWI. Yes,
Krupp named it after his mother-in-law. You thought that Big Bertha was only golf club!
James M. Barber
I hate the fact that so many people have been killed. I don’t think we’ll be leaving Iraq anytime soon. It will take years before the Iraqies will have the ability to provide security for themselves. As far as the flogging is concerned – I recall a few Petty Officers I wanted to get at when I was in the Navy – but I just stuck to cursing them out and kissing my Honorable Discharge papers.
Scary stuff. I am surprised I have not heard more about this on the MSM, this sounds like something an anti-war journalist would be thrilled to report. I wonder if there is any set timelime for an exit or if our departure is completley contingent on Iraqi security force development which may be years.
This “thing” won’t be ending anytime soon. The insurgency has stepped up attacks and they’ve basically got an unlimited supply of guerillas.
Not to mention the fact that we’re building upwards 14 bases in Iraq. Our troops aren’t coming home.
“Giving our troops the green light to do whatever needs to be done to end this thing†should be the new party line for all Americans.”
I thought the party line was that we were giving the generals what they ask for. In what way is this administration failing to support our troops?
Reading Comprehension 101 again.
Bush has given the generals how many troops they have asked for. It was an ALLEGATION by you and others that Bush was removing generals who said we needed more troops.
Is it reading comprehension or lying now? You can’t get every post so obviously incorrect.
I call it… the Actus Shuffle.
Given that there has been a small fringe group of leftists who’ve operated a web site on how to frag an officer (sorry…this was months ago and I don’t have the link anymore) I’m surprised more of this hasn’t happened.
It’s distressing but not unexpected. It’s happened in every war in American history.
” It was an ALLEGATION by you and others that Bush was removing generals who said we needed more troops.”
me? where? I’m just curious as to what “green light” is missing. what’s being asked for that our admin is not giving?
Your first commenter is right to say these weapons are not artillery–an aircraft capable of dropping bombs is a much more significant and versatile weapon system than any artillery tube. Supporting forces on the ground is one of the things it can do, but not by any means the only thing.
Incidentally, the 500lb bomb (not 550lb — no such thing in the US inventory) is, other than the brand-new Small-Diameter Bomb, the smallest bomb an F-16 can drop. It is also not unusual for US aircraft to drop several of these a day somewhere in Iraq–this just goes unreported because it isn’t in support of one of the larger ground operations. Air operations have ramped down greatly since major combat ended in 2003, but they still go on…every day.
Dropping these no more indicates that the US is “getting serious” than any other actions taken in the last few months have. We are serious–deadly serious–and we aren’t leaving until the job is finished. And that won’t be any time soon, by the way.
I write as one with 22 years now in the Air Force, flying bombers, teaching flying and doctrine, and analyzing military history. This comment isn’t meant as criticism–love your site and read it every day! Keep up the great work.
Actus,
You lack what is commonly referred to as intelligent thinking ability.
Please get it.
Thanks for the tip, J.P.
Is that supposed to be a pic of you on the blog?
You make zero sense actus.
Not to mention the fact that we’re building upwards 14 bases in Iraq. Our troops aren’t coming home.
How soon people forget WWII and Germany…
you would think we left after a year and everything was happy and “peaceful” and we were all holding hands and singing. We had to do the same back then for that Europe to stabilize (with a foe to deal with…sound familiar). Goes to show what they are not teaching in history classes today…
Renee, and that would be Kumbaya we’d be singing?
And Japan Renee, and South Korea, and Taiwan (Formosa) when I was there. Why people buy into this silly notion of exit strategy is beyond me.
As one who had bombs dropped all over him by the Brits in Nazi-occupied Denmark, I wanted to hear nothing of an exit strategy except from the Germans.
BTW, some officers were fragged in that war too, as well as in Korea, Vietnam, and more recently Hasan Akbar. He murdered three and wounded several others before the thing got underway.
“Let’s do what needs to be done and get the heck out of Iraq.”
If John Kerry had said this eight months ago, it would have been viewed as the worst kind of treason, the sort of cutting and running that the lily-livered Democrats loved to engage in.
What’s changed?
Its like the USA is divided into half sheep and half shepards. Its up to us to take care of the sheep. They really dont get it!
Mmmmm. Rack of lamb. With mint. And sweet potaters
“If John Kerry had said this eight months ago, it would have been viewed as the worst kind of treason, the sort of cutting and running that the lily-livered Democrats loved to engage in.”
No it wouldn’t. It would have made sense. It still makes sense. But it’s not something the left likes to say. What they say is more along the lines of let’s NOT get the job done, let’s just get the hell out of there and hand victory to our enemies.
But then you know that.
Kalroy
Technically, it was Sgt. Akbar who committed the first murder against officers in Kuwait (Camp Pennsylvania) in a grenade and rifle attack that killed two and wounded 14 in an Army camp in Kuwait on March 23, 2003 — two days before the start of the invasion of Iraq. One of the two officers killed was Maj. Gregory Stone…my cousin.
“What they say is more along the lines of let’s NOT get the job done, let’s just get the hell out of there and hand victory to our enemies.”
haha. that certianly is what the right says the left says.
Actus, I’ve got to hand it to you; you’ve got guts, even when I disagree with you (which is most times). Not many would tread where 90% of the respondents think that most of what you say is hooey.
What is anyone named “Sgt. Akbar” doing in Iraq? That’s just asking for trouble. In WWII (when this society had much more sense) servicemen with Teutonic-sounding names were sent to the Asian Theater. Loyal (to the U.S.) Japanese were sent to Europe.
As to why this recent incident of fragging ocurred: who knows? It could very well be that the commander was grossly incompetent (not excusing the actions, mind you, but stranger things have happened).
Regarding Iraq and a timeline. First of all, anyone using that term with regard to ANY war should be immediately ignored. Bush can get his poll numbers back up if he goes back on the offensive in Iraq and lets the US soldiers KILL the enemy as it was designed to do! There must be VICTORY and and comes only by killing the enemy and destroying everything of worth to him until the price of continuing is too great. YES, this includes turning their cult houses otherwise known as mosques to fine powdery dust.
Bush needs to take the governors off the COMPETENT military commanders still left in our ranks and allow them to fight this war as a war should be fought. Allow them to fight this war as Gen. Patton, Gen. McArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz would have fought it. Stop letting our enemies fight this war for us. Forget what Al Jazeera says. Forget what America-hating Democrats say. They are going to say what they want anyway so with that in mind, we need to go back to racking up body counts in Iraq. Darn the intel. JUST KILL EVERYONE WHO ISN’T WEARING AN AMERICAN UNIFORM until they behave, quit and surrender. History has proven that the President’s poll numbers go up when we in America hear the body count of enemy deaths as opposed to the body counts of friendly deaths. One soldier’s death is way too many deaths to be reported to the nation’s liberal idiots. We must understand that those liberal idiots lead by tree swinging morons like “Turban†DICK Durbin (the Hanoi Jane of our time), the Congressional Black Caucus, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Jim McDermott, Ted Kennedy, Charles Rangel, Howard Dean, John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Dheila Jackson Lee, Barbara Boxer, do not reflect all of America. America is much more intelligent than these goons in the leadership right now and they fully understand the consequences of cutting and running from Iraq now.
America needs to step up the offensive, kill more practitioners of the “enemy religion,†destroy some cities and THEN the troops can start coming home.
President Bush would also be wise CLOSE and ANTI- PERSONNEL MINE the border with Mexico and THEN go ahead with his guest worker program. Start deporting some of these good for nothings who came here just to spit out their children onto our social safety net. If President Bush addresses illegal immigration in a common sense way and not a political way, he can improve his poll numbers.
I suggest that the president call a press conference and PUBLICLY and LOUDLY call out the limp-wristed, yellow-backed, weak-kneed, pansy behinds in the GOP Senate leadership. Tell them to grow spines and stop cowering in fear to the Party whom they were elected to defeat on measures of policy and law.
President Bush needs to PUBLICLY tell the RINOS lead by John McCain to back off and either switch parties or do what they were elected to do. Even if it means losing control. He is in his last term of office. He should be breathing fire right now and a great start would be to tell his boys in the Senate to grow a pair. Another good step would be to punch John McCain square in his smart mouthed grill. McCain is the same “genius” who gave us so-called campaign finance reform and now he is still causing problems with his brain-dead brand of liberal “thought.†Bush should tell this defamed American hero to behave like a MAN and not the silly little RINO twits he has climbed into bed with.
Revive the threat of the Sedition Act of 1798 to punish 5th column, American traitors like DICK Durbin who hate this nation so much and ACTIVELY do thing to put our fighting men in harm’s way. There must be consequences for his type of behavior.
Finally and on a side note: President Bush neds to tell his brother in Florida to stop behaving like Tom Sneddon (overzealous with a vendetta) going after private citizens based on his own personal agenda. Tell him he is going to be needed to run for President and this kind of behavior is not helping his chances.
Raymond’s views are extreme, to put it mildly, and some of them don’t reflect the views of the blog hostess. – Admin
A rational discussion, pro & con, is something that our elected representives have studiously avoided. Of course it doesn’t help when spoiled twits insit on hyperbolic equations.
Robert Kaplan has an excellent article, entitled Whether This War Was Worth It. Highly recommended for both sides of the aisle. One to reinforce what it’s all about and secondly to get real with the talking points — partisan antics only hurt us in the long run:
“The main concern of senior officials in both administrations was that, in the words of then-national security adviser Samuel “Sandy” Berger, containment was not “sustainable over the long run.” The pattern of the 1990s, “Iraqi defiance, followed by force mobilization on our part, followed by Iraqi capitulation,” had left “the international community vulnerable to manipulation by Saddam.” The longer the standoff continued, Berger warned in 1998, “the harder it will be to maintain” international support for containing Hussein.”
[SNIP]
“To quote Berger again, so long as Hussein remained “in power and in confrontation with the world,” Iraq would remain “a source of potential conflict in the region,” and, perhaps more important, “a source of inspiration for those who equate violence with power and compromise with surrender.” Whether historians judge the war favorably will depend heavily on whether post-Hussein Iraq does indeed provide a different sort of inspiration, but, again, the effort to change the direction of the region was surely worth paying some price.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/17/AR2005061701217.html
‘“Iraqi defiance, followed by force mobilization on our part, followed by Iraqi capitulation,†had left “the international community vulnerable to manipulation by Saddam.‒
interesting that saddam’s at once capitulation is seen later in the same sentence as some sort of malevolent manipulation.
>>>April 12 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. has no exit strategy or timetable for withdrawing its forces from Iraq and a pull-out depends on the readiness of the Iraqi Security Forces, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
“We don’t have an exit strategy, we have a victory strategy,” Rumsfeld told soldiers during a surprise visit to Baghdad, according to a pooled broadcast report from the capital. “The goal is to help the Iraqi Forces develop the skills and the capacity to provide their own security.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a8sZejFz9ssI&refer=top_world_news
Couple that with reports on the ground from commanders:
>>>”"I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that … this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations,” Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said last week, in a comment that echoes what other senior officers say. “It’s going to be settled in the political process.”
Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, expressed similar sentiments, calling the military’s efforts “the Pillsbury Doughboy idea” – pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.
“Like in Baghdad,” Casey said during an interview with two newspaper reporters, including one from Knight Ridder, last week. “We push in Baghdad – they’re down to about less than a car bomb a day in Baghdad over the last week – but in north-center (Iraq) … they’ve gone up,” he said. “The political process will be the decisive element.”
The recognition that a military solution is not in the offing has led U.S. and Iraqi officials to signal they are willing to negotiate with insurgent groups, or their intermediaries.”
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/11879261.htm
So according to the Defense Secretary and Millitary commanders on the field, bombing Iraq back into the stone age is NOT the solution to the quagmire we find our nation in, nor is killing more insurgents. It looks like, they’re willing to “cut a deal” with the same “terrorists” they claim to be in Iraq fighting to defend America from.
The irony is PRICELESS.
–Cobra
If you have a problem with that, take it up with Clinton’s man.
“If you have a problem with that, take it up with Clinton’s man. ”
Back in the day I did. We used to organize protests against clinton’s attacks on iraq, specially when they were timed to lewinsky stuff. disgusting stuff.
Nowadays I’m just left with addressing people who give us “excellent articles” that describe “the main concern of both administrations.” Clinton’s man or not.
Hey everybody, Actus finally took a definite stand on something. Much better, Actus.
Andy, #34
I will call this… “The day the music died”
“Hey everybody, Actus finally took a definite stand on something. Much better, Actus.”
Its funny that you have this fetishistic belief that I don’t have opinions on things. Specially right after you:
1. posted an article
2. which I challenged.
3. which you bakced away from by telling me to talk to “clinton’s man”
I’m really in wonder at where you get your ideas.
Raymond writes:
>>>Forget what America-hating Democrats say. They are going to say what they want anyway so with that in mind, we need to go back to racking up body counts in Iraq. Darn the intel. JUST KILL EVERYONE WHO ISN’T WEARING AN AMERICAN UNIFORM until they behave, quit and surrender.”
Well, I guess since nobody else is going to challenge Raymond and his statement, I guess I will.
What you have suggested sir, is GENOCIDE. Do you believe that is what America should stand for? Wholesale slaughter of men, women and children?
I don’t agree with this war, but you need to stop for a second, and UNDERSTAND what “killing everyone who isn’t wearing an American uniform” means.
–Cobra
Didn’t catch that. Thanks. – Admin
For the record, I am against THIS war too. Against it because we are not doing what it takes to win. It is taking too long and too much of Iraq is still standing intact.
I would even go so far as to tell the insurgents that if another American dies in a terrorist attack on our soil, we will erase Mecca and Medina and go ahead with our plans to seize the Saudi oil fields. Don’t worry, REAL warriors like me are no longer in the service.
Actus, my point is that people are out there railing on how Bush screwed up every which way and made up ‘ghost’ stories to convince us that the time to act is now.
Meanwhile from the wayback machine, the Clinton admin is practically saying the same thing with regards to assessing the Saddamic threats – altho they were unwilling to act decisively against Saddam.
It’s called kicking the can down the road – something that lily-livered politicians are loath to do since they don’t have anything worth standing for except another term in office.
You challenged it how? “interesting that saddam’s at once capitulation is seen later in the same sentence as some sort of malevolent manipulation.”
Interesting only in the fact that this is how the game is played by malevolent tyrants. However in your case, I rather suspect you wished to point it out as a self-contraditory statement and by insinuation that it was part & parcel of the VRWC. Hence my ‘talk to Clinton’s man’ response.
I know ESL is tough for some people, but come on, a lack of logical thot processes can’t be blamed on language.
“Meanwhile from the wayback machine, the Clinton admin is practically saying the same thing with regards to assessing the Saddamic threats – altho they were unwilling to act decisively against Saddam.”
I think they were very decisive in dealing with saddam. There was a clear policy of containment.
“However in your case, I rather suspect you wished to point it out as a self-contraditory statement and by insinuation that it was part & parcel of the VRWC.”
Nah. I think the idiocy is bipartisan: I’m talking about you quoting a clinton man. Stop thinking about what ghosts you think i am chasing and start paying attention to what I actually wrote. you “rather suspect” and “insinuation”? thats all in your head my friend. I’m just replying to what you posted.
“Interesting only in the fact that this is how the game is played by malevolent tyrants. However in your case, I rather suspect you wished to point it out as a self-contraditory statement and by insinuation that it was part & parcel of the VRWC. Hence my ‘talk to Clinton’s man’ response.”
You should stop going by your suspicions of insunuations, and just go by what I read. You’ll find I’m guite straightforward.
Actus: “I think they were very decisive in dealing with saddam. There was a clear policy of containment.”
I know there was a stated policy of regime change, but executive action to execute it was indecisive.
Comments on this entry are closed.