[El Tejon]

I'm home tonight doing laundry and cleaning. As I was running through the living room, I heard something on CCN, MSNBC, BBC, or FNC (not sure which one, I flip back and forth) about Barbary pirates passing into Iraq via Syria. Anyone heard anything else?

Good to see the rats coming to us to be destroyed!

[Jeff White]

FNC is reporting that Syria has opened their border to volunteers who choose to go to Iraq and fight for Saddam. They are also reporting that Iran was warned to keep their volunteers out of the country. Syria is allegedly transferring night vision goggles and Soviet bloc ATGMs to the Iraqi army.

Home doing laundry on Friday night? :what: Have they instituted a curfew on the young and nubile up there? ;)

Jeff

[El Tejon]

Jeff, that's wonderful news. The pirates running into our kill zones--fantastic!

Somebody has to square this place away. (Until I take in another maid service as alternative fee).

[Coronach]

They're doing everything possible to keep the environment target-rich, are they not?

Mike

[Sodbuster]

Glad I'm not in Moslem country, surrounded like our troops are. The Arab Moslems hate us more than they hate each other. Are we going to liberate Syria? Iran? Turkey? The whole Mideast? Lee lost an army at Gettysburg (call me a Longstreet apologist). I don't know why Dubya and Friends can't.

[Jeff White]

Sodbuster,

There is a big difference between Gettysburg and Iraq. It may take more forces then the Secretary of Defense wants to commit so that he can prove his flawed ideas of transformation, but you don't need to fear for our forces being overwhelmed in a sea of hostile Islamic extremists.

The arabs haven't fielded a capable army since the Crusades. It remains to be seen if the radical guerilla fish can swim the the seas that will be a population freed from the yoke of the oppressive Ba'athist party.

None of our enemies has anything remotely resembling a Navy or Air Force capable of achieving even local superiority on the battlefield. They don't have the capability to defeat us in a set piece battle at any level higher then platoon. The only tactic available to them is the one they are using. It's going to come down to a war of attrition. They will attempt to create enough casualties to make us lose our resolve and go home. The problem with that is 9-11. In no case where we've pulled out after having our nose bloodied had we ever been attacked at home first. If Saddam is banking on a large scale repeat of Mogadishu making us pack up and go home, he's sadly mistaken. The American people wouldn't stand for it. And the stupidest thing they could do would be to try another terror attack here. OBL repeated Japan's mistake and awakened a sleeping giant. I rather doubt that a terrorist attack here in the US right now would do anything but reinforce the public's resolve to see this thing through. There wouldn't be enough buildings in Baghdad to level....Democrats would most likely critize the administration for moving too slow and not being aggressive enough.

It's like the old saying about liberals changing to conservatives after being mugged....The radical Islamic movement mugged the American people on 9-11. They won't back away from them now. How well do you think the peacenics message that we can't tie Iraq to 9-11 is playing in Peoria? It's not....

Mike is right, they are just providing us with a target rich environment to operate in.

Jeff

[jmbg29]

Pan-Barbary Movement into Iraq?Beautiful!

Remember to bunch up my little 7th century barbarian friends. And remember, when you hear MOAB*, look up!


*Mother Of All Bombs ;) :p :neener: :what:

[WilderBill]

No, no, no.
This just won't do.

Could we get Usamma and the peaceniks to send in more reinforcments for SoDamn? :evil: :neener:

[El Tejon]

Sod, liberate the whole Mideast? Yes, it's about time. Iraq is only the first phase.

Hopefully we will not send troops everywhere but concentrate where they are most needed. Syria is the most likely next step. Many terrrorist organizations have downtown offices to arrange recruiting and fund raising.

Blunt force should/will not be used everywhere (e.g. the Saudi Royal family which should be dealt with via STs or the like), but being in Iraq will put here where the pirates are and we will kill them. God's Monkey House needs a good scrubbing.

[Dannyboy]

A single thought: Giant multinational parking lot.

[Don Gwinn]

When you think about it, we're a lot more like the Union at Gettysburg than the Confederates. We have unquestioned superiority of materiel, numbers and we own most of the ground and are able to choose it at our wish, and we are blessed with an enemy that is foolishly rushing in to attack us on the ground we choose--and who are fighting the last war against new tactics and technologies.

I guess I'm another Longstreet apologist, but let's face it--these people are acting a lot more like Lee.
"Turn in the face of the enemy? We cannot!"
"We must attack, attack, attack!"

[Sodbuster]

"We must attack, attack, attack!"
Since we're in this, that's exactly what I hope we do. For the troops. I'm tired of hearing how careful we are being. Like Major Bob Bevelacqua, I wish we had more armor. It's coming. I understand 2,000 troops of the Big Red One (1st INF Mech) are now in Turkey, and more will probably be pulled from Kosovo duty and deployed to the Mideast. That's good news.