I forget which news channel broadcast this report from an embed complete with video of action. It includes voice overs that were clearly "the guys" who are dying over there talking over a radio or a phone. The short piece was about the kidnapped and killed guys of a few days ago and the voices over the picture said the following, commenting on the slaughter..."Did you hear about the ambush?"
Then the news commentary supporting the dialogue said that everyone he speaks with says they don't have enough troops on the ground. The patrol that was ambushed should have contained at least sixteen soldiers but was sent out with half that many. Again. The soldier dialogue indicated that these under staffed units are now a constant. I read the soldier blogs too, but there is no more denying the total top to bottom fuck up of the conduct of the war, and as a former grunt who always knew everything through the grapevine, the guys always reflect the honest appraisal of all situations. That they are blaming the "suits" and top brass is common in the ranks but has been missing in this war. No more. Keep in mind that every clerk involved in communications knows everything faster than the brass on site and these lower level clerks tell their friends things communicated before they tell the generals.
"Yeah, these people never learn. Same thing happened last time."
"They only sent out seven guys, just like before.....
"Sitting ducks, makes me sick......"
Then too, there is Michael Yon, a guy who has been gung-ho from day one, but always an honest "gung ho." He writes now of the acknowledgment that there is no real victory in sight. The constant murders, tortures, and slaughters have taken their toll. His latest posts are here, for those of you not on his mailing list. READ HIM, please.
5/28/2007
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Howard,
They have been sending in understrength units into combat since at least Korea. I have relatives who fought in both Korea and Vietnam and now in Iraq. At least in Korea, they wised up after the first couple of disasters which included shitty WW2 vintage bazooka rockets bouncing off T-34 tanks. My uncle was in Hue and he is convinced that every unit, squad, or platoon or whatever was understrength during the fight, and this was to assault and eject the NVA from a city where they were dug in and well prepared and motivated for the battle which they knew was coming(sound familiar?). This practice of sending out understrength units into an urban environment has proven highly sucessful at getting Americans killed. I also know it is a fact that we are playing nice and not using our superior technology and firepower because we don't want bad PR and make muslims hate us(!).
I hear this all the time from my relatives there now and they are pretty bitter about how artillery, air or heavy weapons support is denied. I was flicking through the channels after work the other day and on the History Channel, they had a program about the battle in that graveyard in Najaf, I think. They sent small units through the graveyard to attack enemy positions. The jihadis set up a mortar position, in broad fucking daylight and began to rain shit on our people (I was caught in a battle in Croatia some years ago and the Chetniks began to drop mortars on the people I was with. I will say without any shame I was terrified). Air/artillery support was denied because it may have damaged a fucking mosque (in Yon's report, why is the fucking minaret still standing if the enemy is using it as on observation post?! There had better be a compelling reason as to why it isn't a pile of rubble). Shit like that is happening all the time over there and people are being killed and maimed because of it. The lessons that we have learned (over and over again it seems and with rows and rows of coffins as proof) in WW2, Korea, Vietnam are just flung aside in the hope the the next fad will work. They could crack open a few books on the wars in Chechnya, Yugoslavia, etc...If they are too lazy, then they could try the internet. Sorry about the long rant, but we are wasting lives with the current course of action. There is plenty of proven technology and proven ways of how to win and save lives doing it, but since it isn't politically acceptable to actually obliterate the enemy anymore, we will just keep muddling along.
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