Yet Another Helicopter Crashes Near Baghdad
Makes 5 in three weeks
"Iraqi witnesses reported seeing an aircraft in trouble during gunfire from the ground. U.S. military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell told reporters it would be inappropriate to talk about casualties.
"We have a CH-46 that is down," Caldwell said, referring to the twin-rotor Sea Knight, the Marine version of the Chinook, which can carry up to 25 passengers and four crew."
This is a very ugly scenario for the troops, one that should get huge coverage in the MSM but won't, as it reflects poorly on the military logistics and would be huge ammunition in the push to get american troops out of there and home now.
The military burns a massive amount of matériel in Iraq. They must have a constant resupply of fuel, food and water, spare parts and ammunition. There's really only one pipeline to bring this stuff in and that's by road up for hundreds of miles up from Kuwait. Roads coming in from Jordan go straight through Anbar province, hotbed of resistance to americans. Turkey has been cool to the idea of assisting the occupation, and besides only Kuwait has the facilities to provide the transport.
Southern Iraq is controlled by the Shiite militias which up to now haven't thrown their weight into the fight against the invaders. All that will change if Iran is attacked. It will be extremely difficult if not impossible to convoy supplies for hundreds of miles from the south over roads and through towns controlled by the militias. Not only that, all supply ships must go through the Straight of Hormuz which will be shut down completely in a war with Iran.
Right now the military is supplied with what they need only a few percent of the time by air, at best in a bad scenario that can only be increased to mabe a third of what they need.
With helicopters now being blasted out of the sky on a regular basis that doesn't leave many options if the fighting is increased. And of course it's about to by orders of magnitude with Codpiece's asinine surge. I'm no military analyst but it's plain to see that the whole expeditionary army is in serious trouble.
"The British had suffered significant losses and were down to around 11,000 soldiers (plus cavalry). General Townshend chose to stay and hold the position at Kut instead of continuing the march downriver towards Basra. Kut offered a good defensive position, it was contained within a long loop of the river. The problem was how to get supplies. Kut was a long way from Basra. In retrospect, Townshend's decision to stay at Kut was a disastrous one.
(...)
The relief efforts had all failed at a cost of around 23,000 Allied killed or wounded. Ottoman casualties are believed to be around 10,000.
(...)
General Townshend arranged a ceasefire on the 26th and, after failed negotiations, he simply surrendered on April 29, 1916 after a siege of 147 days. Around 8,000 Allied soldiers survived to be made prisoners."
Siege of Kut
"Iraqi witnesses reported seeing an aircraft in trouble during gunfire from the ground. U.S. military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell told reporters it would be inappropriate to talk about casualties.
"We have a CH-46 that is down," Caldwell said, referring to the twin-rotor Sea Knight, the Marine version of the Chinook, which can carry up to 25 passengers and four crew."
This is a very ugly scenario for the troops, one that should get huge coverage in the MSM but won't, as it reflects poorly on the military logistics and would be huge ammunition in the push to get american troops out of there and home now.
The military burns a massive amount of matériel in Iraq. They must have a constant resupply of fuel, food and water, spare parts and ammunition. There's really only one pipeline to bring this stuff in and that's by road up for hundreds of miles up from Kuwait. Roads coming in from Jordan go straight through Anbar province, hotbed of resistance to americans. Turkey has been cool to the idea of assisting the occupation, and besides only Kuwait has the facilities to provide the transport.
Southern Iraq is controlled by the Shiite militias which up to now haven't thrown their weight into the fight against the invaders. All that will change if Iran is attacked. It will be extremely difficult if not impossible to convoy supplies for hundreds of miles from the south over roads and through towns controlled by the militias. Not only that, all supply ships must go through the Straight of Hormuz which will be shut down completely in a war with Iran.
Right now the military is supplied with what they need only a few percent of the time by air, at best in a bad scenario that can only be increased to mabe a third of what they need.
With helicopters now being blasted out of the sky on a regular basis that doesn't leave many options if the fighting is increased. And of course it's about to by orders of magnitude with Codpiece's asinine surge. I'm no military analyst but it's plain to see that the whole expeditionary army is in serious trouble.
"The British had suffered significant losses and were down to around 11,000 soldiers (plus cavalry). General Townshend chose to stay and hold the position at Kut instead of continuing the march downriver towards Basra. Kut offered a good defensive position, it was contained within a long loop of the river. The problem was how to get supplies. Kut was a long way from Basra. In retrospect, Townshend's decision to stay at Kut was a disastrous one.
(...)
The relief efforts had all failed at a cost of around 23,000 Allied killed or wounded. Ottoman casualties are believed to be around 10,000.
(...)
General Townshend arranged a ceasefire on the 26th and, after failed negotiations, he simply surrendered on April 29, 1916 after a siege of 147 days. Around 8,000 Allied soldiers survived to be made prisoners."
Siege of Kut
posted by nolocontendere at 6:32 AM
1 Comments:
"I'm no military analyst but it's plain to see that the whole expeditionary army is in serious trouble."
You don't have to be -- you have a clearer idea of what's going on than the career boobs at the Pentagon who may or may not realize the abysmal situation on the ground in Iraq. If they do realize it, and are lying through their teeth, they should be court-martialed; if they don't, they should resign because they aren't up to the job. (Of course, that wingnut Army Lt. Gen. William 'Jerry' Boykin who said his god was bigger than the Muslim god, should be tossed to the lions.)
Boykin: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=William_G._Boykin
Before I read your post, I put up a similar one at Liberaltopia you might find interesting. Here:
http://liberaltopia.org/?p=1701
The downing of our choppers with heavy machine gun fire and shoulder-fired missiles is the last straw that spells our defeat in Iraq. I think the end is near, probably within the year, no matter what Bush or Congress want -- the situation in not in our control anymore.
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