GIs lose status as super-warriors in Iraq

dailytimes.com.pk ^ | Monday, April 12, 2004 | AFP

[Destro]

Monday, April 12, 2004

GIs lose status as super-warriors in Iraq

BAGHDAD: A joke circulating in Baghdad says: “If you want to frighten an American soldier, shout ‘Fallujah’.”

The town where US troops have been blocked for seven days by insurgents fighting from street corners, rooftops and minarets — often using less than sophisticated weapons — has become a symbol of the changed attitude to the US-led occupation forces.s.

In one year, American GIs have fallen from the status of super-warriors to ordinary men in the eyes of Iraqis who have seen them fall victim to old rocket-launchers and home-made bombs.

A year ago, after the rapid collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime and rout of his forces, the American army with its high-tech weaponry seemed invincible to many in the Iraqi capital.

“It had an image of incredible force. People attributed extraordinary powers to it, with some saying the tanks were so sophisticated they could deflect the course of incoming rockets. Its soldiers were viewed as supermen,” said Ouissam Taofiq, a geography teacher.

But then, the first patrols fell victim to explosions of home-made bombs or the bullets of 30-year-old light arms.

“The Iraqis realised that the Americans were not so sophisticated, that it was easy to hit their convoys or helicopters with old rocket-launchers and Kalashnikovs; that the soldiers were ordinary men, as vulnerable as us,” said the 60-year-old Sunni teacher. A year later, attacks against US troops have become increasingly frequent and murderous. Respect for them has evaporated. “They have shown weakness. Instead of getting rid of them, they freed ex-military men or Baathist paramilitaries, who have reorganised,” said a former Shiite commander, referring to the supporters of the former ruling Baath party.

“American soldiers have shown themselves incapable of ending insecurity here and have lost the respect of part of the population,” added Shamsi al-Zahawi, aged 70.

For others, the Sunni guerrilla fighters or the insurgents of the Mehdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who no longer hesitate to display their weapons, the thing that has vanished is fear.

“The ease with which American soldiers have been attacked for a year has encouraged the mujahadeen (warriors) and the militiamen of Moqtada Sadr,” according to Taofiq.

The culmination of this “resistance” is the battle for Fallujah, the Sunni town some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad where 2,000 marines have failed to crush resistance after a week of ferocious combat. “To see the most powerful army in the world incapable of conquering fighters equipped with light weapons in a small town like Fallujah, is a sort of victory,” said an official of the Baghdad journal Al-Manar. —AFP

[Destro]

We showed restrained behavior to them and they saw it as a sign of weakness.....

We need not start decalring unilateral ceasefires when we saw fit not to declare such against Saddam......

I think too much and should hold my tongue....

[Defender2]

dailytimes.com. To Them We ALL Say, "HorsePuckey"!!!!



D2

[Crazieman]

The instant we started pussyfooting around with the insurgents, we lost that status.

A velvet glove begets contempt which begets violence with these people.

[bolobaby]

Uh huh. And that's why our kill ratio is somewhere around 20:1 during THIS period. (Much higher during the invasion, but 20:1 is still pretty high.)

[Destro]

You said what I could not say.

[dts32041]

Humm 1500 working in a town of 500,000 and it is only in its s 7th day, have a long way to go before Stalingrad.

The fasciopislamists should be ashamed of themselves they haven't wiped out 1500 marines.

[SuziQ]

I'm sure the libs in America and Europe, and the terrorists in Iraq WISH this were true!

[Lijahsbubbe]

American soldiers have shown themselves incapable of ending insecurity here and have lost the respect of part of the population,” added Shamsi al-Zahawi, aged 70.

They have their hands tied so that they don't end up hurting sorry @sses like yours. But you've been around for 70 years, what have you and the rest of your impotent buddies done to end insecurity?

[mrsmith]

It astonishes me to see the way AFP propaganda jerks people around on FR.

Not picking on you, just had to state my surprise at what propaganda can do.

[Destro]

The kill ratio does not matter to them or in such warfare, I reckon. If it did they would have stopped by now.

[Diogenesis]

It does not matter what the kill ratio was.
They murdered 3000 Americans per hour and they cheer it to this day.
As a result, when America hesitates to retaliate, our media (in league with terrorism)
shouts, "Quagmire. Weakness", and irrespective of kill ratio, the appearance is weakness.
One corrolary: Thank NBC, CNN, ABC, NPR, and CBS for making America look bad
and for the deaths of American heroes (which is what the media wants for their own political reasons).

[bolobaby]

Don't be fooled... kill ratio is an important part of assymetric warfare whether it matters to the enemy or not.

[StarCMC]

Well said Destro.

LEt's roll!!

[Filibuster_60]

The ceasefire in Fallujah has done wonders for us, hasn't it? Think about it: we buckled under pressure from our own puppets on the governing council.

[Destro]

So we declared a unilateral ceasefire because we killed too many of them I guess....

[F16Fighter]

"We showed restrained behavior to them and they saw it as a sign of weakness....."

And this is exactly why we should mercilessy hammer the enemy with overwhelming force at ALL times and tear out their heart.

The World ought to take note.

[WOSG]

"We showed restrained behavior to them and they saw it as a sign of weakness..... "

Yes. Typical arab cultural mis-understanding.

I recall something incredible and stupid: we apparently let 500 of the 'least bad' guys go from prison in January, and as a consequence there was an uptick in violence and attacks right afterwards.

We simply cannot let the terrorists of Fallujah escape the net, or this will spiral downwards to our detriment.
Nip problems in the bud.

[Antoninus]

Let's see what this week brings before unilaterally surrendering to these vermin, eh? There were a lot of naysayers announcing defeat and catastrophe when it took us longer than two days to take the whole country last year. You may have been one of them, if I remember correctly. I guess three weeks was way too long.

I think the fear of God is going to be put back into a lot of these folks pretty soon. But it's better to get them all out in the open now than to leave them scurrying about to support another outbreak later. If the vermin had been smart, they would have timed this "insurrection" to happen about two months from now...

[Tribune7]

Lost in the frenetic headlines of the last week was an unnoticed military revolution. Never in history have 1,200 men stormed a city of 230,000 in urban combat without extensively using heavy weapons before the US Marines did in Fallujah. This is nothing short of amazing because the 90% of the combat power of an infantry unit is embodied in their heavy weapons. And they were stopped only by a truce, not by enemy resistance. When the Marine casualties from the Ramadi ambush, not part of the Fallujah battle are subtracted, the Marine losses have been spectacularly low by historical standards. They are actually lower than the IDF losses in the smaller Jenin engagement (which used armored bulldozers to clear lanes) and several orders of magnitude beneath the Russian casualties in Grozny, despite the lavish use of armor, artillery and air by the Russians. US forces were never tested in extensive urban combat during Iraqi Freedom. MOUT is no longer theory. It is practice.

-- courtesy of Cannoneer No.4