Re: [A-List] US imperialism: Iraq

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

This nutty plan might work, if only because Iraq's armed forces are in
disarray and bound, in any case, to the bloodletting doctrine of a
conventional war of attrition.  The roping onto rooftops thing is always
pretty for Hollywood.  It forces a helicopter to hover, making it an easy
target for a near-sighted 14-year-old with an RPG, and exposes the
rope-sliders to small arms fire while their own hands are bound - on pain
of a fall from a great height - to the "fast-rope," which initiaties a
series of events like we saw in South Mogadishu, circa 1993.  We also tried
this silliness in Grenada and got the shit shot out of us.  That was
another tactical defeat few know of, that was overcome by pouring a virtual
Inchon onto an island with the population of Leesburg, Virginia.  Sometimes
Special Operations becomes special, because the commanders are especially
stupid.  I'm sure Rumsfeld is getting a boner thinking of all this
excitement.  Perhaps they should let him be the first man in the door.

"We see the unhistorical and ahistorical character of bourgeois thought
most strikingly when we consider the problem of the present as a historical
problem."

-George Lukacs
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>
To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 5:34 AM
Subject: [A-List] US imperialism: Iraq


> Lightning strikes to cut casualties in battle for Baghdad
> IAN BRUCE
> The Herald, 23 October 2002
>
> US troops are training for an assault designed to capture Baghdad without
> becoming bogged down in a street-by-street, house-by-house dogfight which
> could kill or injure one in three of the attacking force.
>
> The new tactics, of "speed, firepower and shock", have also been drawn up
to
> avoid having to reduce the Iraqi capital to rubble to liberate it from
> Saddam Hussein's grasp, a process which would inevitably involve tens of
> thousands of civilian as well as military casualties.
>
> The plan is to isolate the city and strike key regime command centres and
> strong points with overwhelming force without clearing every room and
> alleyway of enemy troops.
>
> Satellite surveillance and spy plane missions in the past two months have
> concentrated on identifying the key buildings which would have to be
> occupied or destroyed, leaving Iraqi soldiers cut off from orders in
small
> and vulnerable pockets.
>
> Foreign construction companies have been asked for the blueprints of
palace
> complexes and government buildings to allow pinpoint targeting.
>
> Officers have drawn on the experience of US units in Mogadishu, Somalia
and
> Port-au-Prince in Haiti, as well as the bitter lessons learned by Russian
> infantry battling their way through the ruins of Grozny, the Chechen
> capital.
>
> The plan calls for roadblocks on every route out of Baghdad to prevent
> breakouts, reinforcements or resupply of its defenders. All broadcasts by
> Saddam or his lieutenants to the outside world would be blocked by
> electronic jamming while bombs accurate to within a few yards steadily
> shattered his command centres.
>
> Air assault troops sweeping in by helicopter would rope down to rooftops
to
> capture buildings which dominated main avenues.
>
> Colonel John Nicholson, a pioneering commander of the new, "light"
armoured
> units, said: "You first isolate the city, then specific targets within
that
> city. You don't want to take the entire urban sprawl."
>
> US soldiers, already practising in mock-up towns, will try to advance in
> darkness through areas which cannot be avoided, using night-vision
goggles
> and infra-red detectors.
>
> Tests are also being carried out with a special tank-round perfected by
the
> Israelis and used this year to punch access holes in house walls, without
> bringing down the structure, through which troops can move rather than
> advancing in the open streets.
>
>
>
>