Massive Air Strike Has Begun

[Robert]

Originally posted by Ming
Again... while the attack was heavy and intense... City lights are still on. One can only hope that the "smart" bombs were targeted properly, and actualy hit what they were supposed to do.

Reuters reports that one of sadam's palaces has been hitted by 12 missiles.

[General Ludd]

I think the blast from the MOAB is supposed to be much bigger then that.

[Solver]

They prolly decided not to hit the power stations... although I've heard that some radars don't work properly.

That mushroom cloud would've freaked me out, but I know that a-bomb explosions are thousands of times bigger. And they wouldn't use an a-bomb on a 5 million city.

[The diplomat]

That was not the MOAB. It was a 2000 lb bomb though.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by CyberShy
I think this is a MOAB.
not sure though.

Certainly not, that is likley a 2000LD bomb or smaller. A MOAB if noted in a city would take out 16 to 64 blocks and raise a debris cloud to many thousands of feet. A MOAB (massive ordinance air burst) would be a great thing to use on a spread out air field. The overpressure would take out aircraft (inculding in revetment and armored hangers and bucker with open doors) for a large radius.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I'm pretty sure that's not a MOAB. From the other pictures, the detonation of a MOAB is more horizontal than vertical like that.

[Alex]

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.

[SlowwHand]

That wouldn't be used, as Lefty said, in Baghdad proper.

[Agathon]

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

[Cookie Monster]

Honestly Saddam should just give up and seek asylum elsewhere. He is so rich that he could live a comfortable life. Is he really that power hungry that he is willing to lead his country into destruction? That is exactly what Hitler did during the second world war.


Only someone who has commited atrocities and who knows he will be tried and executed in a court of law has nothing to lose so he fights until the bitter end. This is all very shameful.............

[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.

[Az]

Actually, AFAIK, they plan to take it by night.

[Asher]

Originally posted by CyberShy
I think this is a MOAB.
not sure though.

from cnn.com

No, it's most likely a 2000lbs JDAM...

JDAMs being the new bombs that are guided by INS/GPS rather than lasers, so they're much more accurate especially in bad weather/smokey environments.

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by GePap
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.

Precisely, Basra is only 50miles from the Kuwaiti border. Something isn't right about this whole thing. They should have been in Basra by now and why hasn't there been any fierce resistance yet? Something is just not right.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Haupt. Dietrich
Precisely, Basra is only 50miles from the Kuwaiti border. Something isn't right about this whole thing. They should have been in Basra by now and why hasn't there been any fierce resistance yet? Something is just not right.

This was all expected. Saddam's concentrated the vast majority of his troops in and around Baghdad...