[Moronic. You thinkm
A: That they have no air assets involved.
B: that a full company of Marineinfantry in a defensive position is a sitting duck for the Iraqi army.
Both are laughable.
LOL, go back to gaming.]
The Marines aren’t facing the Taliban or even the Iraqi insurgents. It’s potentially the entire Iraqi military and paramilitary gendarmerie. In essence, this could turn out to be a replay of the Iranian Embassy situation in 1979. It might help to hint to the Iraqi PM that he will personally be targeted with a JDAM if things go south, perhaps while he’s having dinner with his family.
“That means the Marines might have to deal with howitzers, helicopter gunships and F-16 strafing runs and air-to-ground munitions like JDAMs and Hellfires”
Like I said, go back to gaming. If you think the Iraqi military is going to menace the embassy force with howitzers, gunships, and F-16s strafing and dropping JDAMs, you are delusional.
They barely have the capability to make it to the chowhall.
And what capability they do have will never be turned against our embassy. That would be -instant- death under a swarm of Hornets, F-15s and F-16s with actual skilled pilots, and they are -well- aware of that factoid.
There is not enough military power in all of Iraq to take a fortress manned by 100 Marines.