Massive Air Strike Has Begun

[GePap]

Originally posted by Azazel
Actually, AFAIK, they plan to take it by night.

Why would they need to go in the dark if no resistance was present?

I remember these notions about how we would see Iraqis in the streets celebrating as theirt liberators drove by...

I still don't expect much fighting for that city, and that the US and Uk should have it soon. But if by tomorrow that city is not in coolition hands, then there is something off.

[Asher]

Originally posted by GePap
Why would they need to go in the dark if no resistance was present?

Minimize civilian casualties?

[Edan]

[I remember these notions about how we would see Iraqis in the streets celebrating as theirt liberators drove by...

Like these?

A few men and boys ventured out, putting makeshift white flags on their pickup trucks or waving white T-shirts out truck windows.

"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."

Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"

Many others in the starving town just patted their stomachs and raised their hands, begging for food.

A man identifying himself only as Abdullah welcomed the arrival of the U.S. troops: "Saddam Hussein is no good. Saddam Hussein a butcher."

An old woman shrouded in black — one of the very few women outside — knelt toward the feet of Americans, embracing an American woman. A younger man with her pulled her away, giving her a warning sign by sliding his finger across his throat.

In 1991, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died after prematurely celebrating what they believed was their liberation from Saddam after the Gulf War. Some even pulled down a few pictures of Saddam then — only to be killed by Iraqi forces.

Gurfein playfully traded pats with a disabled man and turned down a dinner invitation from townspeople.

"Friend, friend," he told them in Arabic learned in the first Gulf War.

"We stopped in Kuwait that time," he said. "We were all ready to come up there then, and we never did."

The townspeople seemed grateful this time.

"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"

Admittedly, there'll be a lot more support for Saddam as they move up north.

[Spec]

Watch an MOAB explosion here.

http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/affacts/big-bomb.mpa

Discusting...

[GePap]

Well, I await the same story from Um Quassar and then from Basra...

I still fidn it strange that the marines are moving relatively slowly. They started going, what, a day ago basically, and Um Quassar looks to be somehting like 10 miles past the border.

[Zero]

nobody else is pissed off about the massive use of bombs and missles?

Every time I see an explosion I think "Wellthere goes another portion of my paycheck....".

[GePap]

I expect the Iraqis had emtied many of those buildings before, since they all sound like obvious targets. Unless they then moved people in, the acual numbers of dead form this attack should be relatively low.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Alexnm
Funny, I thought that they would avoid the massive bombardments for fear of civilian casualties and the corresponding political backlash. Maybe they are facing stiffier than expected resistance.

Pre-planned military and government targets. This has nothing to do with resistance being faced. More likely a message to those considering surrender.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by GePap
Well, I await the same story from Um Quassar and then from Basra...

I still fidn it strange that the marines are moving relatively slowly. They started going, what, a day ago basically, and Um Quassar looks to be somehting like 10 miles past the border.

Russian radio intercepts detailed in an intelligence briefing make it sound as if reistance is fairly substantial in that region.

[Fidel]

seems like some people are pleasuring themselves watching fireworks on tv

[Wraith]

I'm blatantly stealing this from a Slashdot post, but enjoy anyway:

In A.D. 2003
War was beginning

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A series of large explosions rocked Iraq's capital sending plumes of smoke and fire into the skies over Baghdad as the intense coalition air assault got underway.

Saddam: What happen?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Saddam: What!
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Saddam: It's You!!
Bush: How are you gentlemen!!
Bush: All your oil are belong to us.
Bush: You are on the way to destruction.
Saddam: What you say!!
Bush: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Bush: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
Saddam: Take off every 'Scud'!!
Operator: You know what you doing.
Saddam: Move 'Scud'.
Saddam: For great justice.

Wraith
"The reason the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices it on a daily basis."
-- from a post-war debriefing of a German General

[Az]

LOL

[CapTVK]

I find the fact that millions of people are watching a city being slowly turned into rubble, LIVE ON TV, very very disturbing. Almost surreal in fact. It's more like one of the television scenes out of Robocop.

The trouble is, this isn't a movie...

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by GePap
The US would never use a 21,000 pound bomb on a city center, unless it was deperate, which at this point it is not.

It is niteresting they have not turned the ligths off..my guess is their working assumption is that they can shake the lower echelons enough to ahve them give up...the previous light show was not enough, so lets give them an even bigger one to drive them to their senses, or so the theory goes.

Why aren't we in Basra yet? It is well within 24 hours travel time form the border, and in theory, we should have been let in with 0 resistence. As fo yet, no word about anyone either getting into or taking Basra...

Note how it does not seem to be in the target list.

I dont know if you have been listening to the news but they took that city hours ago. Way before the "shock and awe" campagin.

[DanS]

It's an abosolute f*****g atrocity. Any right thinking person should be disgusted at this spectacle.

Personally, I don't think it's an atrocity to see Hussein's palaces destroyed. There is likely minimal loss of life. This is just a demonstration, so that fewer lives are lost in the long run.