US readies for Iraqi Freedom II

[Tinoire]

US readies for Iraqi Freedom II
From correspondents in Baghdad
30nov03

THE United States is to boost the number of infantry soldiers in Iraq and move from a force based on tanks and heavy armoured vehicles to one specialising in urban assault raids, using lighter vehicles and intelligence.

The top US military official in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, today said that a new phase in the Iraq war, known as Iraqi Freedom II, would begin as forces were rotated out of Iraq and replaced by new US units.

"We are going to change the composition of our forces," Sanchez said.

"We'll have more infantry. We're moving to a more mobile force, one that has the right blend of light and heavy.

<snip>

Sanchez said those troops were being replaced by civilian contractors, in the case of transportation and logistics.

<snip>

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8021413%255E401,00.html
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Oh boy... civilian contractors?

[whirlygigspin]

1. civilian contractors?

We used to call them mercinaries no?

call me up some Hessians gov!

[cthrumatrix]

2. sounds like things are improving......not

[Bombtrack]

3. we need to increase american education scholarships to Iraqi youth

by like a thousand fold. They're going to be the one's who can hopefully turn Iraq into what the coallition has said it would. A free, market-based democracy.

[JackSwift]

4. The Abrams armor is no longer thick enough

to keep out the latest rocket propelled anti-tank rounds, so they are going to expose our troops to all kinds of attacks.

[RandomUser]

5. There is no way our troops are sufficiently trained for this

They're asking something from our troops that they were never trained to do. Training to operate a tank is different from training to conduct anti-guerilla urban raids.

The idiot war planners behind the whole Iraq thing screwed up big time. They either didn't understand what would be required or they didn't care. Whoever was in charge of the aftermath planning and painting the rosy pictures should be fired. Their mistakes are costing lives.