Posted on 08/05/2005 1:16:01 PM PDT by jmc1969
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Marines and Iraqi troops pounded insurgents with bombs and tank cannons Friday during a major offensive along a stretch of the Euphrates River valley where 22 Marines were killed this week.
About 800 U.S. Marines and 180 Iraqi soldiers moved into Haqlaniyah, one of a cluster of western towns in Anbar province around the Haditha Dam that is believed to be a stronghold of Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters.
Heavy Abrams tanks battled insurgents armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, while U.S. jets destroyed at least four buildings _ two of which were found booby-trapped with explosives, a U.S. military statement said.
"The wires were connected to numerous 155-mm artillery rounds scattered throughout both buildings," the military said.
Operation Quick Strike is the third major campaign since May aimed at rooting out insurgents and foreign fighters in the Euphrates valley, which is believed to be a major infiltration route for extremists entering Iraq from Syria.
Residents said U.S. and Iraqi troops had cordoned off Haqlaniyah, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, and were searching house to house. American warplanes prowled overhead and a number of heavy explosions were heard. Witnesses said 500-pound bombs were being dropped in the area.
(Excerpt) Read more at tristate-media.com ...
Too little, too late.
Level the damned towns/cities.
Let the other folks who harbor terrorists start to think what will happen to their homes and family.
Time for heavy duty IDF style Fallujah clearing tactics.
Its a fine line, if we go too far we piss off the Sunnis into not voting before the next two elections at the end of the year. After the next two elections our hands will really be untied and we do a hell of alot more large scale bombings and hell we can give old B52s to the new Iraqi government and train their guys to really wipe out the enemy.
Then why are we not pounding Syria?
If we do not want to wage war and go after the enemy, then we should stop this police action now.
Same as the Yalu River limits for our jets in the Korean "conflict".
After the deaths of our beloved and courageous Marines, it's time to take off the gloves. It may be a little late, but later is better than never.
I believe Hiroshima was a good example of how to win a war!
"later is better than never."
Ditto. Pound them into rubble.
The town of Hama, like many smaller towns in the Sunni parts of Syria was a center of activity of the Muslim Brotherhood an Islamist group opposed to the rule of Hafez al-Assad's Baath Party. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s Assad's government had been violently suppressing the movement, and this effort culminated in the attack on Hama. The Muslim Brotherhood were inspired by the success of the Iranian Revolution and had been supplied with arms by the Turkish Grey Wolves. Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. ...
The Muslim Brotherhood or Muslim Brothers Jamaat al-ikhwan al-muslimin, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, often simply al-Ikhwan, the Brotherhood) is the name of several Islamic political organisations in the Middle East. ... Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. ... Hafez al-Assad Hafez al-Assad (October 6, 1930 - June 10, 2000) was the President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. ...
Baath Party flag The Ba‘ath Parties (also spelled Baath or Ba‘th; Arabic: comprise political parties representing the political face of the Ba‘ath movement. ...
Protestors take to the street in support of Ayatollah Khomeini. ... Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar in Turkish) is the common name for the paramilitary arm of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetci Hareket Partisi, MHP), an ultra-nationalist movement founded by Alparslan Turkes in 1961. ... The assault began on February 2 with extensive shelling of the town of 350 000 inhabitants. Syrian special forces entered and began to slaughter its inhabitants, with many others fleeing. According to Amnesty International, the Syrian military pumped poison gas into buildings where insurgents were said to be hiding. The attack was successful in its goals and the rebellious activities of the Muslim Brotherhood ceased after this point.
Halabja was Saddam trying to do the same thing, it doesn't make it right. If the Iraqis want to go into villages and kill everyone that its their prerogative. But, millions are getting ready to vote in the Sunnis community right now and the people we are fighting are going to do everything they can to stop them from voting at which point the Sunni community will turn on these guys. A couple hundred foreigners getting high tech bombs from Iran are all that is necessary to kill on a consistant basis US troops. However, it would be a huge mistake to react in the wrong way to this. Hitting Iran would be the right way, butchering Iraqi villagers would be the wrong way.
Time is running out for the terrorists and they know it. Their hope is to leverage the MSM contempt for this president and it's WOT (particularly Iraq) by getting the images of dead US soldiers, mayhem and destruction played over and over ad hominem to remind us that the Iraq war is not ours to win.
Reasoned debate and perspective is lost as they (MSM) try to cater to our emotional side by showing images and a tone to the reporting that may play to the emotionality of a citizenry jaded by a continuous barrage from Iraq.
I despise the MSM more than the terrorists for their complicity in the death of many. There will be a day of reckoning and I will celebrate the day it comes.
Our armchair generals here could care less about the facts.
MOABites just like the idea of blowing things up and are oblivious to strategic and tactical concerns.
Gee has Japan declared war on us again or do you just believe One Size Fits All in war?
These Loons believe we should attack Iraqis because the same people attacking THEM are attacking our soldiers. What geniuses.
As my tag indicates I agree completely. Our greatest enemies are here. Until they are dealt with we are in great danger.
Yup...massive and overwhelming force..
a. There is a government which would be concerned and possibly weakened by large loss of life. The insurgents wouldn't care - it would only serve to strengthen their foreign recruitment.
b. There is a mass concentration of enemy fighters in a single area smaller than the radius of the bombed area. That's not the case here, as the insurgent forces are scattered.
We're doing what needs to be done - cutting off the supply and reinforcement route of the insurgency coming out of Syria.
Next we need to do the same thing on the Iranian border.
I hope they leave the place in "dust".
Godspeed! We're here...and we're praying for you!
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