US intelligence issue pessimistic report on Fallujah offensive

[Bragi]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Marine intelligence officials have issued a report warning that any significant withdrawal of troops from the Iraqi city of Fallujah would strengthen the insurgency.

The assessment, distributed to senior Marine and Army officers in Iraq (news - web sites), also said that despite the heavy fighting with coalition forces, the insurgents would continue to increase in number, carrying out attacks and fomenting unrest in the area.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&u=/afp/20041118/wl_mideast_afp/us_iraq_falluja_report_041118102945&printer=1
---------------

Who'da guessed that turning the city into rubble, and evacuation and slaughter of the population, wouldn't stem the tide of insurgency? Looks like Plan B is to keep troop strength high in whatever is left of the place.

I wonder what Plan C will be? Maybe just withdaw and nuke Falluja into rapturous freedom? Surely that would work.

[non sociopath skin]

1. And here was me thinking the Iraqis would be delighted .....

... that we'd pounded one of their cities into rubble and shot some of the people.

Ungrateful buggers!!!

The Skin

[GoBlue]

2. Oops, time for another memo to the intelligence folks.

Just recycle the Goss CIA memo with appropriate changes.

[Kber]

9. Think we need to Purge the military too? nt

[byronm]

3. And i thought Chechnya was a mess

Falluja heck, iraq is just as bad of a quagmire now

[cali]

4. Fire 'em if they're not towing the bushco line n/t

[Bragi]

5. Hey Cali

What's the "n/t" that people use here at the end of subject lines mean? Just curious.

[cali]

7. Hi bragi, it means no text and eom means end of message

[Bragi]

11. Thanks. Got it! n/t

[jmcgowanjm]

6. IRR 111704

US forces withdrew from their ground attack and carried on
the fight with an air bombardment of the southern part of the
city. The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in the city reported
that the US forces are using cluster bombs and napalm in
their bombing, in particular in their attacks on the ash-
Shuhada’ neighborhood. The US bombers, that come in
from outside of Iraq, were
still engaged in bombing at the time the correspondent
wrote
his report.

Meanwhile US forces strengthened their presence in the
south, doubling its presence in the south of the ash-
Shuhada’ neighborhood. US columns have been driving
from the northeast of al-Fallujah towards the US
forces concentrated in the south.

The Resistance is still holding its own, however, and
repelled the US attempt to advance on the south of al-
Fallujah. Resistance forces fired more than 35 rockets,
thought to be Grads, at the US forces concentrated northwest
of al-Fallujah and at the US concentrations to the south.
The rockets were fired from the al-‘Amiriyah and al-
Karmah areas. Resistance forces responded to the
US bombardment with a rocket barrage of their own from
the heart of the southern half of al-Fallujah, firing 82mm
and 60mm mortar rounds as well as Katyusha
missiles.

Resistance shoots down two helicopters near al-Fallujah.

Iraqi Resistance fighters firing BKC automatic weapons
shot down an American Apache helicopter at dawn
on Wednesday in the area of al-‘Amiriyah south of al-Fallujah
as it was hovering at a low altitude to take part in the
American military operations underway in the south
of al-Fallujah.

Iraqi Resistance forces fired a C5K rocket and struck a
big Chinook helicopter as it hovered over the
Saddamiyat ath-Tharthar area southwest of as-
Saqlawiyah, setting it ablaze along with all aboard the craft
at 2:45pm Wednesday. The helicopter was carrying a load of
US troops wounded in al-Fallujah.

[cali]

8. Where does this info come from?

Source please. It's just wrong to post stuff this way.

[jmcgowanjm]

15. yes, it is. But do you want Discussion or LBN

If you want Discussion, here's the site:

http://uruknet.info/.?p=m7354

But if you want LBN, then the site I post from
is regularly hacked and hard to bring up.

You can blaim the Agit prop bureau of the DoD
CIA, and Mossad/IHaganah for the
inconvenience.

No doubt I will be accused of being a ‘conspiracist’ and of
not being ‘even-handed’ in my treatment of these two
tragedies but the fact remains that every time there has been
an event that showed the ‘coalition’ in a bad light starting
with Abu Ghraib, we then had the Berg ‘beheading’ that
was followed by virtually identical videos surfacing on the
Web without any attempt being made to track down
those responsible for the Websites even though the owners
of the Websites were easily identified. And of course the
most blatant example was the Osama tape only days before
the US election.

http://williambowles.info/

Of course there is always what the intelligentsia of the Arab World is loading:

http://www.albasrah.net/index1.html

[jmcgowanjm]

10. What if US is not fighting to get in but to get out

So the situation for those troops trapped in Fallujah is quite
dire I presume as we are in day 12 of it.15,000 troops
rushed into The deepest and central part of Fallujah,each
soldier carrying light equipment,the resistance then closed
the door on them in a layered defense,meaning that if
they moved forward they met resistance fire and if they
moved back they met resistance fire.So basically the
Soldiers had to take defensive positions where they are.They
are without water and food and have little or
No ammunition.Supply cannot from vehicles cannot enter
those parts because of attack,helicopters cannot resupply
them inside or withdraw them,because they will get
blown up.That is the situation many Soldiers have
found themselves in Fallujah.

Godd reason for Myers to be in Baghdad
and Cheney to check into hospital.

Revision from Falluja being Khe Sanh to Dien Bien Phu?

[bvar22]

12. Please give the sources for your info, jmcgowanjm .

I seriously doubt that the Iraqi resistance can encircle our troops with "a layered defense". While it does appear that the Iraqis have obtained some missles that threaten our helicopters, they are not much of a threat to an airstrike by fast moving jets. The US would simply BLAST an opening for the retreat or resupply of the occupation forces.

Also, need documentation for the use of Napalm.

[jmcgowanjm]

16. Exactly what the Resistance says the Aircover is doing

US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq
 
10 August 2003

American pilots dropped the controversial incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops during the advance on Baghdad. The attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated several Iraqi positions.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=432201

And I'll tell you right now that 10% of the US
Fallujah forces have been taken out of action
in one way or another, which according to military doctrine
causes disintegration.

James J. Schneider's construct of the crucible of war is a case
in point.4 During the 1980s, as the Army refined
its understanding of operational art, Schneider offered
a metaphor that would assist in understanding how
the application of military force brought about the defeat of
the enemy. His construct was that of a crucible in which
military force (heat) was applied against a unit (lead).
The transformation of the lead from solid to liquid to gas was
a metaphor for the application of physical force resulting in
the successive destruction of forces (physical), followed
by disorganization of command and control (C2)
(cybernetic), and finally disintegration of unit cohesion
(morale). Schneider's construct focused more on the unit
than on the commander and more on the application of
physical force than maneuver. The primary means for
applying force in Schneider's metaphor was
physical destruction.

http://www.leavenworth.army.mil/milrev/English/SepOct02/greer.htm

[KittyWampus]

13. So Our Troops Are Stuck There... Situation WILL Deteriorate.... Isn't This

the definition of a quagmire?

[Eloriel]

17. Oh, it was already a quagmire

at least in my definition of the word.

This is a slaughter -- on both sides, I think.

[damntexdem]

14. How to win hearts and minds:

destroy a city of 300k people, including their religious shrines.

Gee, I wonder why U.S. forces are still being attacked!

[astroboy]

18. ah... but what about the rest of iraq?

ah, the DRAFT will save us... nevermind.

[LoneDriver]

19. Well, Sir - we had to destroy the village in order to save it

Fallujah Secure, But Not Yet Safe, Marine Commander Says,

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2004/n11182004_2004111803.html

They will sure be surprised when this turns out not to be the decisive battle they were looking for.