[Smogger]

My question is where are they getting these suddenly very effective surface to air missiles, and how best should we punish the Iranians?

[APRPEH]

do we know yet what type of missile or rocket is being used to do hit the helicopters?

[jveritas]

I think we should not put every "helicopter crash" in breaking news section. It is a war and losses occur but we should not dwell on losses. Why isn't the Start of Operation to control Baghdad is in breaking news section? Is the breaking news section only reserved to bad news?

[pissant]

We will eliminate the threats by eliminating the jihadis there. Then on to Iran and Syria.

[greenthumbedislndr]

We shouldn't have helped those afgans against the russians... It would have been much better to have all these "mujahedin" potheads to be tied up fighting the russians than for us to have to deal with them. The russians would still be in Afganistan if we didn't help the freegin mooslum scum.

[ibtheman]

I am here presently in Iraq, I am not far from the iranian border, our troops are doing some things to interdict the movement of bad guys on and near the border. Also one of the helos that was shot down, was by an old type of anti-air heavy maching gun, an antique of a weapon! Many of the helos fly low to the ground, big problem! The media is always going to be liberial, so get used to it there negative perspective on the news here in iraq. I will say this, our troops are doing there job, but I believe the rules of engagement need to be changed, in order for the troops to be able to have more aggressive tactics here, I am talking about the army troops.

[Gritty]

Jihadis don't manufacture missiles. Somebody else does and sells/gives the missiles to them. It shouldn't be too hard to determine who.

The hard part is mustering the will to do something about it other than wringing our hands and maybe sending some stripped pants babbler to "negotiate" about it.

[leadpenny]

Posted as Breaking News at 4:20 this morning:

U.S. says checking reports helicopter down in Iraq [helicopter down]

[detch]

I think if the President said a two star flag officer (or above) must be a passenger on each helicopter flown in Iraq, we would see a stop to this nonsense.

Helicopters are like taking candy from a kid -- proved in Afghanistan against the Russians, in Somalia against the US Army, in Vietnam, and in Iraq.

This is another case of the US Army saying, "We want an air force also."

Mr. President, please ground all helicopter ops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anza_%28missile%29

Anza (missile)
Mistral
FIM-43 'Redeye'
FIM-92 'Stinger'
9K32M 'Strela-2' (SA-7)
RBS 70
9K36 'Strela-3' (SA-14)
9K38 'Igla' (SA-18)
9K310 'Igla-M' (SA-16)
KP-SAM "Shin Gung"
Blowpipe
Javelin
Starburst
Starstreak
Type 91[3]
Type 93
China HN-5A/B
China QW-1/2
China FN-6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mornin' Ya'll,,, These are all the types of MANPADS
(shoulder-fired)That I could find ,,,There is a factory in T-Ran that makes
the Iranian version of the Strela SA-7
These are "tail-chasers",,,Passive-IR,,,Track the heat from the rear,,,
That (AP) "Witness" said they watched the Helo fly over,,
Heard the missile launch,,,saw the Helo on fire,,,then crash,,,The "Witness" must have been very close to the launch-site for this to have happened like he said,,,
FOX-NEWS now reporting that it was not shot down...

I have read that there are between 5,000 and 10,000 of these types of weapons in Iraq...
This will be costly...

[Finalapproach29er]

Our leaders are gutless pussies. When are we going to respond?


Pardon my slang. This pisses me off.

[ozzymandus]

Time for some massive, bloody payback. Both to the terrorists firing at our helicopters, and to whoever is supplying them.

[Sword_Svalbardt]

That ain't no crash - somebody just bagged our bird, and somebody else, 1 guess as to who it is, supplied these people with the weapons to shoot our birds down.

Ben Grim says it best: "It's clobberin' time!"

[Big Horn]

Is their any defense from these missiles?

[TexKat]

U.S. military sees alarming pattern in copter downings