ProtoDude 0 Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 I can't understand why more "progress" isn't being made by the overwhelming force of the "willing" or whatever they call it. Link to post Share on other sites
Glen Falting 0 Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 Protodude, it coz they're using only half the forces they really need to do the job properly, and they don't want to butcher the entire Iraqi army (which the US military machine could quite easily do). The aversion to blowing up the whole country is making life a little difficult. blue on blue cas are part of every major war. troops are trained to operate their equipment so that it becomes second nature to them and so that regardless of how feaked out they get they can still respond to orders and operate in incredibly difficult circumstances. Trouble is when troops get tired, stressed and frightened they tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Add that to some pretty limited visability and its probably surprising that more friendly fire accidents don't occur. Its going to be interesting to see how the things play out during the next couple of days coz (1) the US/Brits are probably pretty close to not having enough forces in Iraq to deal with a practed fight against a strong force of several well equiped well motivated divisions, even with overwhelming airpower and (2) if these same Iraqi forces withdraw into the cities and mix with civilians, the war will end with an unpopular puppet government constantly under attack from terrorists which will require a long term and equally unpopular US presence to keep it in power. Nothing good can possbily come from such a situation. Anything short of an ending that includes a popular Iraqi uprising will be very bad for the US in this war. Anyway, does anyone else get the feeling that the coverage of the war, particularly the BBC, is a bit like watching the olymipcs? During the past week I've been getting home from work, opening a beer and sitting back and watching the war on the TV. The different aspects of the war are treated like so many different events. Even the interaction between the reporters is a bit like the olympics... "and now its over to Bob at the Armoured Wrestling constest", "Thanks Peter, yes here we are at the Iraqi National Armoured Wrestling Centre just outside of Basra and what a day we have had so far. After the preliminary rounds the contest has come down to the Iraqi national team, who seem to be making the most of their strong local support and home ground advantage to put the more fancied US team under considerable pressure. Nevertheless the US team are still quietly confident." "So what is the score there now Bob?" "Well Pete, we're approaching half time and after some initial success on the part of the US team, I have to save that things are pretty even. We'll have to see out the teams come out after half time and I would expect the US team to start the second half with all guns blazing and try to put the Irqais under as much pressure as they can. But I'm not going to write the local guys off just yet. They've made the most of their underdog status and have a lot of support from the folks in the crowd, even from those that would normally be cheering the US team. I can tell you one thing Pete, its going to be a great second half. "Thanks Bob, we'll come back to you later in the game. Now we'll head over to Andy at the precision bombing complex in down town Bagdad, where the combined US and British team have just won a gold medal. Andy, apparently there have been some pretty amazing medium level bombing runs this afternoon." "Yes there has Pete. Really very impressive. I have here with me one of the members of the US national precision bombing team who we'll speak to in just a moment, but first a word from our sponsor" And so it goes... Pretty grim all round I reckon. Link to post Share on other sites
IceEiji 0 Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 I agree with you, it is very sad. And I am watching lots of it on television, but it is not quite as 'exciting' as the Olympics. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 Agreed with you there kambei-san. I'm getting a bit numbed by the TV coverage, sad to say. Link to post Share on other sites
Glen Falting 0 Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 sorry about posting the same thing three times, sometimes when i post an error message appears so it looks like the post failed for some reason. Link to post Share on other sites
oblivion 5 Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 I wonder how many more weeks (months?) this 'quick and precise' (Shock and Awe ©) war will go on? Link to post Share on other sites
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