Read this and then ask yourselves a question: and if it's "Huh?", that's ok.
In gunbattles and air strikes, US forces killed at least eight insurgents while sweeping through a village near the Syrian border in an offensive aimed at rooting out al-Qaeda militants in the region, the military said yesterday.
About 1,000 US troops, backed by attack helicopters and warplanes, began the offensive in the western village of Sadah on Saturday morning, also hoping to close insurgent supply routes and stem violence ahead of Iraq's crucial vote on a new constitution this month.
A thousand troops, helicopters, probably some fixed-wing attack aircraft and they got eight unlucky souls. On the plus side, no US casualties were reported, on the minus side, they probably spent 10 million dollars to kill eight insurgents whose comrades will be back in 24 hours to reclaim the ground they lost to overwhelming force.
Is there something fundamentally wrong with this picture, or is it just me?
posted by Jo Fish on 10.03.05 at 09:37 AM
Comments:
More pursuit of an operational scheme that's a proven failure. Is it any wonder the generals sounded like vaudeville commedians on TV this Sunday?
No sir! It is not just you at all! This is the result of self-absorbed ideologues -who have NEVER witnessed the horrors of war up close and personal - finding a criminally simpleminded, born-again drunk - equally clueless as to the ramifications of combat -through which to enact their fucking games using REAL Americans as their playing pieces!
Where, America, is the goddamn OUTRAGE!
Aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!
posted by: Bill Arnold on 10.03.05 at 12:14 PM [permalink]
Nothing wrong with your picture, no need to adjust the vertical, no need to adjust the horizontal.
This is the very same area occupied by a Sqdn of the 3d ACR until 2/04 and then by the 3/7 Marines until 11/04.
This is going to keep going on until we finally leave.
posted by: fbg46 on 10.03.05 at 12:39 PM [permalink]
Go check out Paul Rieckhoff's post at HuffPo from a buddy of his who is in Ramadi right now. It's worse than even we thought.
posted by: fbg46 on 10.03.05 at 01:51 PM [permalink]
Not that I'm as old as some of you guys (heh) but didn't we do this in Vietnam? Didn't we go in, pacify a village and then leave only to have them come right back? I also love the fact that Chimpy said there would be no body counts, yet they sure let us know when they kill a couple of 'em.
"Bombs and bullets instead of bodies" - Could be the motto of General Dynamics!
A hotshot squad of young infantrymen could have done the job, but the war profiteers don't make any money on that. Damage to infrastructure? Halliburton'll be glad to fix that.
Having said that, as a Marine I love supporting arms! Spend the damn money!
Gordon has hinted at the money behind all this. Don't just think of the missle fired, also think about the profits to be made in replacing said missle... and the political contributions from the profiteers (minus the input of their own kids, of course).
I was in infantry, Nam, in '68. If a body was that of at least a ten year old boy it was a VC. Babies and youg girls were collateral damage, if reorted at all. I doubt that has changed one bit.
