U.S. and Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. and British aircraft, hunted and killed foreign fighters in the town of Karabila near the Syrian border on Sunday, prowling house to house in search of guerrilla bases….A hundred or so people waving white flags walked out from northern areas of Karabila at dawn on Sunday after loudspeaker warnings that marines were about to seize the district. Dust storms later held up the military’s progress, officers said. (Source)
The U.S. should have gone into Iraq with more troops and a more aggressive plan of attack. No point in talking about what should have been, though.
Related: See Falluja Strikes, Bomb the Temple!, and Appeasing the Insane/Dying for Freedom.
Update (6/20): Guantanamo Bay detainees eat food fit for a prince. They’re given prayer rugs and brand new Korans. But forget about that. Next time you’re subjected to some spoiled American’s effete whining about “torture” at Gitmo, ignore him. Or send his this link.
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Lashawn:
Here is part of an article I just saw on the Fox website:
“Troops searching the bunker found nooses, electrical wire and a bathtub filled with water for electric shocks and mock drownings.
“In the basement, troops found automatic rifles, ammunition, terrorist training manuals and DVDs showing insurgents beheading captives, Pool said.”
Lashawn, do you think that Amnesty International and the ACLU can tear themselves away from the Great Gulag Quest down at Gitmo and at least say something critical about real terrorists for a change?
BTW – you can read the rest at:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159994,00.html
Sorry – #1 was about what US troops found during Operation Spear. I failed to mention that in my comments.
Mwalimu Daudi – The short answer to your 7:31pm question is “no”.
The longer, more detailed answer is “never”.
Lashawn,
I agree with your comment 100%. We should have had the manning in the beginning to do this. Shinseki stated that, and had the riot act read to him. I think that we should give our General Officers, especially the Cincs, more decision makin power.
P.S. Marine and Soldier are always supposed to be capitalized. The Marines had this in their official writing style before we did, but now the idea has caught on for us Soldiers as well. Have a good one!
As to more troops, remember that Turkey blocked a big part of our war effort. This war and aftermath would have looked a lot different if our ‘friend’ Turkey had allowed us to attack from the north as well as the south.
“The U.S. should have gone into Iraq with more troops and a more aggressive plan of attack. No point in talking about what should have been, though.”
AMEN… the problem La Shawn is that we now use “public opinion”, “poll numbers”, “peopl’s emotions” and what other countries think (or the UN) to dictate how we fight a War (as opposed to just going in kicking butt and getting the job done regardless of what everyone else says). As people’s emotions rule the day (and man’s perverted concept of peace… which is a figment of his own imagination), we will never seriously “win” any war.
Kinda hard to put more toops on the ground when we don’t have the numbers — remember the peace dividend and the reduction in troop strength?
The reason Shinseki was run out was that he commited the Army to a bunch of feel good projects (cool berets made in China/Army of One) and his assertion that more troops were needed was a way of trying to sandbag the OIF.
AMEN ANDY!!!!
“This war and aftermath would have looked a lot different if our ‘friend’ Turkey had allowed us to attack from the north,,”
But Michael, the problem wasn’t the attack. That
went off pretty much as planned. The problem is a gross miss-understanding of the extent of on-going resistance one could expect to find for a Western presence in an Arab land.
Iraq is now a magnet for every rebel Western hater in the Arab world, and we cannot let them win. But Rumsfeld’s and Wolfowitz’s failure to
understand and plan for what a novice would know would be at least a 50/50 chance of happening after the attack is hard to excuse.
Jim – You are correct. I don’t think anyone doubted the US military’s abilty to easily defeat the Iraqi army. It may have been the largest in the Middle East, but it was a third rate army at best. It is much harder to deal with the aftermath of victory and our government didn’t have a plan and ignored plans presented by persons who knew better. I think we’ll be in Iraq for a very long time.
Iraq is now a magnet for every rebel Western hater in the Arab world, and we cannot let them win.
Sounds like they maybe chose to draw them out, and consolidate them, rather than have to root them out of how many sovereign nations?
But hey, these guys are novices at geopolitics and strategy, compared to Jim R, who’s accomplishements include….
(crickets)
Lessee…
–USSR vs Afghanistan – drew radical Muslims from all over the world to fight the infidel bear.
–USSR vs Chechnya – drew radical Muslims from all over the world to fight the infidel bear.
–Lebanon vs Israel – drew radical Muslims from all over the world to strike a blow at Israelis.
–Northern Alliance vs Taliban – drew radical Muslims from all over the world to enforce the Taliban rule.
–Serbs vs Kosovo/Bosnia – drew radical Muslims from all over the world to fight the Serbs.
–Various African hot spots – drew radical Muslims from all over the world to claim a country for Wahhabi fascism (Kenya, Somolia, Sudan etc).
–Phillipines vs insurgents – drew radical Muslims from all over the world to fight the ‘catholic’ pigs.
–Tsunami devastated countries vs Islamists – drew radical Muslims from all over the world, not to render aid but to forment Islamic uprising against victims of other faiths while they’re down.
–India vs Pakistan – drew radical Muslims from all over the world trying to subvert India and provoke outright war.
Europe vs Islamofascists – drew radical Muslims from all over the world to milk the welfare system and eventually take over by sheer numbers of Euro-born Islamists.
See a trend here? OTOH…
–Iraq vs Iran – mainly a fight between Iranians and Iraqis. Radical Muslims from all over the world not interested in one cause or the other.
–Iraq vs Kuwait – mainly a fight between Iraqis and Kuwaitis until the coalition formed to run Saddam out. Radical Muslims from all over the world not interested in one cause or the other.
–Syria vs Lebanon – mainly an internal power struggle between government and national radical Muslims. Radical Muslims from all over the world not interested in one cause or the other.
–Algeria vs Algeria – mainly an internal power struggle between government and national radical Muslims. Radical Muslims from all over the world not interested in one cause or the other.
–Egypt vs Egypt – mainly in internal power struggle between government and national radical Muslims. Radical Muslims from all over the world not interested in one cause or the other.
Therefore, hitting Al Queda in Afghanistan and Saddam in Iraq would logically draw radical muslims from all over the world to fight us on our terms, no? By drawing them out, they’re fighting on a battlefield of our choosing as opposed to them planning and scheming to hit us at home on their timetable.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the 9/11 commision conclude that by striking back, a coordinated West Coast attack was stillborn due to our disruption of their chain of command.
E-E-E-Easy boys. Don’t do a Pat Tillman on me. I’m a friendly!
I’m not against the Iraq war. I’m against incompetence. Managers get fired in a civilian job for planning this badly and we all know it, and seen it.
The differences is big screw-ups only costs money in civilian life, and there are no firings for loyal screw-ups in political life.
Sorry Jim, but a friendly wouldn’t make Pat Tillman jokes. Try that puckey over at Kos or DU. They like dead soldier jokes there.
Jim R, define incompetence. Ever heard of ‘Art of War’ — means war is not a science. Methinks primarily since we’re dealing with human nature and planning a counter-move for every conseivable outcome simply isn’t practical. More so in this era of real-time command & control and asymetrical combat. Who knew that nut would release hardcore prisoners in wake of his retreat. Saddam is the kind of guy that if he cna’t have it, neither can anyon else.
If you mean “exit strategy’, then name the person who coined this in relation to military strategy. Hint: The baloney-ous notion is younger than most readers here.
In all of mankind’s history, there has never been such thing as an exit strategy, until the Clinton Admin made it up to convince voters that we could safely venture into Bosnia because “we have an exit strategery”, to get out after 1 year. After 1 year is right, 12 years later, we’re still over there picking up the pieces and holding the peace. Go figure.
Raymond, I sent you an e-mail. Please read it. – Admin
“Sorry Jim, but a friendly wouldn’t make Pat Tillman jokes.”
Thanks SCII. It was wrong. Especially the smiley face at the end. I hope and pray none of his friends or family have read my attempt at a poor analogy. Totally stupid of me.
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