Ducking...
Posted on 01/23/2005 10:39:58 AM PST by areafiftyone
Italy is to send its powerful Mangusta attack helicopters to Iraq because of worsening unrest in the run-up to January 30 elections, and following the killing of one of its soldiers by insurgents last week, media reports said on Sunday.
"Based on the worsening situation we have been evaluating, already for some time, sending the Mangusta helicopters into the field," said General Filiberto Cicci, the top military officer overseeing the Italian mission in Iraq,
The Corriere della Sera newspaper said the Mangustas would be sent "within a matter of days, or a few weeks".
However, Cicci said in an interview with Sunday's La Stampa the decision to send the Mangusta was unrelated to the killing of a machine-gunner aboard one of its standard helicopters last Friday.
Controversy has raged in Italy over the suitability of the current AB-412 helicopter for the Iraq mission, where it is mainly used for reconnaissance and providing air protection for humanitarian convoys.
Wonder how the DUmmies will take this LOL!
>>Controversy has raged in Italy over the suitability of the current AB-412 helicopter for the Iraq mission, where it is mainly used for reconnaissance and providing air protection for humanitarian convoys.<<
For the sake of accuracy, controversy has raged only on the MSM. In that kind of mission a Mangusta would've been useless. And there's still people here able to figure out why in Iraq a soldier can die these days, regardless of what Saddam's buddies in the press tell us. They'll vote in Nasiriyah, and our boys will make sure of that.
These losers just can't get over Nov2 and the fact that we're still there with the USA. The Machine gunner who died was a very good soldier and a patriot. All his friends, relatives and colleagues remember him so. He was from a town near Rome. Please pray for him
(Anyway the Mangusta helicopters are truly great. The US army is evaluating them. Hope they send them to Nasiriyah to squash some more terrorist scum!)
Glad to hear they are sending them. The Italian soldiers need to be protected with the best equipment. Prayers for the brave Italian soldier who died.
Sweet 'copter. Good allies. The election is going to happen, and the good guys are going to win again. Thanks Italy!
Ping (forgot earlier). Though helicopters aren't "real" aviation. ;-)
Ducking...
"Fabrizio Quattrocchi"
Good evaluation of the Mangusta I would think...hopefully this won't be interpreted as things worsening, but I know it probably will.
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The pilots will all be women who look like this! Fishnets from above! |
"Fabrizio Quattrocchi"
Amen.
That's one mean looking piece of hardware!!
Hurray for Italy on this decision!!
God Bless All The Troops Involved!!
Why? "reconnaissance and providing air protection" is exactly what the Mangusta is designed for. Far more than the AB-412
>>For the sake of accuracy, controversy has raged only on the MSM. In that kind of mission a Mangusta would've been useless<<
>>>Why? "reconnaissance and providing air protection" is exactly what the Mangusta is designed for. Far more than the AB-412<<<
Yes, and I can't wait to see our Mangustas paying back those animals, but in that specific mission they were flying over civilian premises and crowd. They had to be ready to rescue Iraqi officers and civilians with prisoners if necessary due to a terrorist infiltration the peaceful inhabitants of Nasiriyah who support us wholeheartedly (we've spotted - and killed or arrested -countless islamofascists thanks to the help of that good peeple). The firepower of the Mangusta would've been excessive in the context.
I agree that we (the coalition as a whole I mean) should go more on the Falluja/take-two mode, but this time it's just that those missions imply that you risk that someone hidden among innocent civilians shoots at your chopper. You can't just raze the neighborhoods right away if the crowd is not hostile. When it was possible, like in April when there was the battle for the bridges of Nasiriya, we killed about 200 terrorists, but that was a larger scale battle, and we had cut the enemy away from the civilian homes.
Believe me, the people there are with us, regardless of what CNN says. From what my friends there tell when they're back, I understand better why the coalition forces seem too prudent at times. It's a gallery of 35 year long horrors, and we are the first uniform-wearing people treating them humanely they've seen in decades. Winning their sympathy was "easy" but losing it can be easy too, when you've been through what they have been through. We must be VERY prudent. Especially with the impending election.
They're gonna' get a 767 tanker real soon...
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