CNN: U.S. launches new offensive in Iraq

[shockingelk]

TIKRIT, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military on Sunday night unleashed what was described as a "massive" offensive against insurgents based around Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, as part of the 4th Infantry Division's Operation Ivy Cyclone, U.S. military sources said.

"The 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse has launched a series of combined arms operations to include air and ground strikes against identified targets," a statement from U.S. Central Command said, "along with precision raids against non-compliant groups and individuals focused on neutralizing paramilitary, former regime loyalists, foreign fighters and other extremist and subversive elements with task force area of responsibility."

Strikes in the town of Ad Dwar, north of Tikrit, destroyed several buildings, including houses of individuals believed to be involved in the shooting down of a U.S. helicopter on November 7. Also targeted by U.S artillery was an abandoned summer palace belonging to Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, an official in the deposed regime who is No. 6 on the list of 55 most wanted Iraqis.

A military source said the offensive is designed "to let the Iraqis know that the attacks on the coalition will not be tolerated."

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Whistles by

and says two words, Arab Revolt

Of coure the one that makes sense to most... TET.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Yep...

seems that they could benefit by considering what happened to the Turks in 1917-1918...(oddly, I kind of thought that studying the Arab Revolt and particularly the guerrilla tactics employed by Lawrence was standard at West Point & Army War College; guess they don't learn too well, or something...)

[shockingelk]

2. isn't "massive operation" synonymous with "major combat"?

if all the trouble is being caused by 5,000 insurgents ... and Tikrit has a population of a quarter million, and the concentration of insurgents is 100x the norm in Tikrit (my figure, pulled out of my ass) ...

That means we've launched a "massive assault" at 100 people, from the air and ground ... in an urban area of about 250,000 people.

It's easier to believe that we have no control over Tikrit and we consider 100% of the population "insurgents".

[spinbaby]

3. Also a neighborhood in Baghdad...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031117/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716

They have absolutely no control over there and we're going to have nasty, nasty urban warfare with lots of civilian deaths. Saddam was no saint but he's looking like a far better alternative than this cluster f#¢#.

And if you follow the explosions carefully in the news, you can tell that the Green Zone is still being shelled every night at about 9:00.

[mediaman007]

24. But we have our "peacekeepers" over there and

we have to keep them busy. So let's bomb some more, tear down some houses, and antagonize the rest of the population. At least, our soldiers will feel better.

[izzie]

5. This is par for the course.

It has not worked anyplace it has been done before, so try it another time.

[leftchick]

6. WoW!....look what they confiscated...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031117/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716

<snip>One such "cordon-and-search" raid early Monday in Baghdad's middle-class Azamiyah district netted 21 suspects along with 30 Kalashnikov AK-47 automatic rifles, about a dozen shotguns and 10 handguns. Most suspects had violated a one weapon per house rule.

....and they are making lots more friends....

<snip>Some also were furious that troops were arresting men who had more than the single AK-47 now allowed by the coalition forces. At least a dozen of those taken away were detained after the army confiscated revolvers or bird guns that could not have presented a serious threat to the security of the occupying forces.

"Of course everybody has weapons," said Samir al-Hadith, an engineer who works in Saudi Arabia and had returned to Baghdad to check on his home. "There are so many thieves nowadays. we have to defend our families."

"Under Saddam Hussein there was much more security and we could own guns," he said.

Zuheir Ali, 26, was detained after troops found a snub-nose .38 Smith & Wesson revolver in his house along with an AK-47. They left the automatic rifle but confiscated the handgun.

"I don't understand this, we're not criminals, we only want to defend our homes from looters," Ali said.

Journalists accompanying the troops during the bitterly cold night were offered hot tea by several of the residents.

"But no tea for the soldiers," said Lamya Shaheen Ahmed who stood on the sidewalk with her mother and two sisters after troops had gone through their house.

[hussar]

7. Winning hearts and minds

The American way :puke:

[Demonaut]

25. No it's the Shrub Way

Dont compare the fucked up Shrub way to the american way..The soldiers are scared and hurting, they did not ask for this war but it's not a choice they can make..if you had ever served you would understand...I hope you were jesting. The whole military operation is trial and error, mostly error. We should not be there but now we are there we have to make something work..we cant leave until then.

[xchrom]

8. tea for some journalists

off topic a little --
but aren't humans funny -- in the middle of a ''war'' -- somebody stops and offers somebody else tea. amazing -- there's something about that -- that i love.

[Fovea]

23. When I was 10

I had a neighbor, Mohammed Shahariari(sp), from Iraq.

He was polite, almost painfully shy, and his wife was more outgoing. I would sit by the pool with them sometimes for tea. He gave me a surfboard that he had gotten in California, simply because I admired it. He would not take no for an anwswer.

Looking back on it, they must have been terribly lonely in the states. He was an Electrical engineer working for an aerospace firm. We shared a passion for classical music, and he turned me on to Cobol, the oud, and if memory serves correctly, Ravi Shankar, a hindu.


They moved, and I lost track of him. I wonder what became of them.

But Mo remains my stereotype for Moslem professional men to this day.

[BlackFrancis]

17. where are the gun nuts at?

They whine and piss and moan that the US is grabbing up their guns so the UN or aliens or whatever other freaky conspiracy they have cooked up in their little brains can take over but they back this guy that really does want to grab up guns and stomp all over this inalienable, god given right to arm yourself to the teeth and rule over them with an iron fist.

[gristy]

9. This sounds just like one aspect of the I/P conflict

Conduct your arrests/trial/sentencing in one fell swoop by bombing/bulldozing a few houses in a neighborhood. Nothing if not efficient. The U.S. is making lots of friends fast, huh. :eyes:

[0007]

12. Is Sharon leading the charge now days?

[Bob3]

10. trying to hit a gnat with a sledgehammer (again)

Good morning vietnam.

Didn't work then - won't work now.

[Ripley]

11. I know this is "military-speak", but...

along with precision raids against non-compliant groups...

Couldn't non-compliant groups be anyone who resists having their homes torn up and their children and wives being bodily searched?

This will only make things worse.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Somewhat akin to chopping off your leg to kill the misquito. Dumb.

[Beaker]

14. In the immortal words of Princess Leia:

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers..."

[PATRICK]

15. counter productive except

to boost US morale? The same futile senseless stuff our 'enemies" love that the Israelis do better(still ineffective). One guy said it was to show off our power(all the hardware targets left unscathed?)

As my prewar comments predicted, the once uninvolved Iraqi population is getting field lessons on fighting our troops day by day, seeing what works and doesn't and learning mostly that we are not only capable of great incompetence and venality but exceedingly vulnerable. The idea that they CAN fight us is an unnecessary and dangerous lesson. It won't be just AQaida branching out to expand the war although that blanket term as all other inaccurate shadowy reportage will be used as deemed appropriate by the WH ministries.

We aim to stay there in showy impotence until they learn to defeat us at will.

[Spazito]

16. How many "new offensives" has it been now?

Everytime they mess up on one, they just send a memo to the press about a "new named new offensive". Strikes me as the same old offensive with a new name.

[dArKeR]

18. CNN Field Whore says 'soldiers shelling empty lots.' And the Sheeple

keep on grazing! I just can't believe it. We're shelling nothing and this is acceptable. Why doesn't a Dem. candiate with a spine stand up? Why doesn't the Out of the Closet Ken Lay with Hair, Clark, our military Repuke Democrat stand up and say something about this insanity?

1. Any live fire has it's risks to the soldiers loading, firing, and tracking the shells. Americans could be injured and/or killed for nothing.

2. The shells could go off course and kill innocent people when in fact we're shooting at nothing. Ken 'Clark' Lay please explain this to the American people.

3. How much money are we wasting in this mission shooting at nothing. Are these $1000 - $10,000 shells.

(The CNN Field Whore asked the US Soldier something but I exactly heard his response; 'We have 9 more shells to go tonight.' Is our entire media and political system a bunch of Whores or are they all deep undercover NSA agents? No one questions war where there's nothing to shoot at but the soldiers are given orders to go shoot 50 shells into that vacant lot then got back and take a shower?

In Hawaii, my next door neighbor was a B-52 pilot running out of Guam in the Vietnam war. He said they actually had no idea a war was even going on. It was get up in the morning, go eat a nice breakfast, make a bombing run and hopefully be back by 5PM maybe catch a twilight golf game but for sure drinks in officers club.

Iraq seems to me Iraq is Ditto, (word used in recognition to Limbutts fans), Vietnam.

[LibDemAlways]

19. I caught a BBC news report the other night

showing an American raid on a home in Tikrit. A terrified woman in nightclothes was manhandled by a soldier who kept grabbing at her nightgown. This kind of shit wouldn't go over with the populice anywhere in the world, but has to be magnified a thousand times in a Muslim country. Tell me again. What the F&*# are we doing over there?

[maxsolomon]

26. what we are doing: securing our access to oil

anything else is a cover.

[tabasco]

20. Good thing the CINC declared major combat over.

I hope the Iraqis got the memo. Maybe the coward in chief could go over there and make up for his dishonorable departure from the Texas Air Guard during wartime. I'm sure some of this "minor combat" wouldn't faze the big chickenhawk a bit. Bush could be the fire team leader with Rumsfeld on point and Cheney humping the M-60. Maybe Wollfowitz could handle a 60mm mortar.

[phillybri]

21. "MISSION RE-OPENED"

:grr:

[Patriot_Spear]

22. Looks like the Iraqi's have read Mao...

Generally speaking, the dispersal of guerrilla units, or "breaking up the whole into parts", is employed chiefly:

(1) when we want to threaten the enemy with a wide frontal attack because he is on the defensive, and there is temporarily no chance to mass our forces for action;

(2) when we want to harass and disrupt the enemy throughout an area where his forces are weak;

(3) when we are unable to break through the enemy's encirclement and try to slip away by making ourselves less conspicuous;

(4) when we are restricted by terrain or supplies;

(5) when we are carrying on mass work over a wide area.

PROBLEMS OF STRATEGY IN GUERRILLA WAR
by Mao Tse Dong

[PurityOfEssence]

27. News Flash: "U. S. still offensive in Iraq"

It was mighty alarming to hear the officer briefing his men in a pre-assault situation with the repeated phrase "crush all opposition" on the "Nightline" story last night.

This is gasoline on the fire; all you need to see are the sequences of kicking down doors and the combat infantrymen moving into rooms with sleeping newborns and adults.