Iraqi Resistance

I heard for the 12th time that Um Qassar would have fallen. Personally, I don't believe it anymore.

 

I know jow you feel Erwin. It is annoying, the media keeps saying Umm Quasr has fallen, the bridges of the Euphrates have been secured, the Al Faw Peneinsula is secure, Iraqis have been surrendering. But the fact is all of the country at the moment is unstable. It's a lot like the situation on the Eastern Front during ww2.
The Germans would clear a town, advance through it and they found that they were being fired upon from behind.

 

Allies Risk 3000 Casualties in Baghdad - Ex-General

Reuters
Monday, March 24, 2003; 10:17 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led force in Iraq risks as many as 3,000 casualties in the battle for Baghdad and Washington has underestimated the number of troops needed, a top former commander from the 1991 Gulf War said on Monday.

Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the 24th Infantry Division 12 years ago, said the U.S.-led force faced "a very dicey two to three day battle" as it pushes north toward the Iraqi capital.

"We ought to be able to do it (take Baghdad)," he told the Newsnight Program on Britain's BBC Television late on Monday.

"In the process if they (the Iraqis) actually fight, and that's one of the assumptions, clearly it's going to be brutal, dangerous work and we could take, bluntly, a couple to 3,000 casualties," said McCaffrey who became one of the most senior ranking members of the U.S. military following the 1991 war.

"So if they (the Americans and British) are unwilling to face up to that, we may have a difficult time of it taking down Baghdad and Tikrit up to the north west."

McCaffrey said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had misjudged the nature of the conflict. Asked if Rumsfeld made a mistake by not sending more troops to start the offensive, McCaffrey replied: "Yes, sure. I think everybody told him that."

"I think he thought these were U.S. generals with their feet planted in World War II that didn't understand the new way of warfare," he added.

U.S. forces have advanced more than 200 miles into Iraqi territory since the start of the war and are beginning to confront an elite division of the Republican Guards deployed to defend the capital.

"So it ought to be a very dicey two to three day battle out there." McCaffrey said of the confrontation with the Republican Guards.

He said his personal view was that the invading troops would "take them (the Iraqis) apart."

"But we've never done something like this with this modest a force at such a distance from its bases," he warned.

McCaffrey, a former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces in Latin America, served overseas for 13 years and took part in four combat tours.

He twice received the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest medal for valor in the United States.

 

I disagree with one thing that General said, if the US Generals were grounded in WW2 they would have realised that you must secure positions before moving on, otherwise you leave your supply lines exposed. I would have thought that they should have ditched the original plans to race for Baghdad as soon as they realised that the towns were being captured, lost, captured and lost again. The Royal Marines are being called in to clear Umm Qasr as the US Marines are not as good at FIBUA, which is fair enough, I am just wondering how many British soldiers are going to be killed clearing towns because US soldiers couldent hack it? No offence but the British troops are far better at FIBUA courtesy of 25 years in northern Ireland ('the best training ground the army ever had' according to a Colonel I knew), the problem is that there are not enough British troops to clear every town in Iraq and we do not have a large enough defense budget to cover it, speaking of which, are we going to get paid by the USA to make up for the cost of helping in their war? It seems like British troops are doing a disproportionatly large amount and seem to be heading towards doing more. I wonder....

 

Probably the US may attacke towards Bagdad, while the Brittish may defend the "uncaptured" towns along the road to Bagdad.

 

Just read the news:

The troops are 60-70 kilometers from Baghdad but are stopped (totally?) by sandstorm. The storm might last up to 60 hours...

 

US can't provide any tactical air support during these sandstorms.
It will be interesting to see if the Iraqis plan any offensives during these events.

 

They probably would attack the waiting tanks and shoot a the US soldiers who are waiting and can't see much because of the sand.

 

We might be entering the most dangerous part of the offensive:

Will there be suicide attacks?

Will there be bioweapons used?

Rumour says that the Iraqi troops have US uniforms and would wear them a. to get closer to the real US troops before attacking b. killing civilians and the US troops getting all the blame

As well there is supposedly some kinda revolting going on. Will they be able to help liberate Baghdad and other cities?

 

Bio weapons are biological aren't they?

[ 28. March 2003, 11:25 PM: Message edited by: Knight Templar ]

 

Saw something about a couple of M1 tanks getting knocked out without personell injuries this morning, now that seems to be gone. Something about Iraqi jeeps with TOW missiles. Was it a bogus news item that nobody bothered to retract? Sounded fishy by was on several big sites.

 

Why no deadly gas? "The answer my friends, is blowing in the wind....."

No.9

 

Because the US and GB would than have a possibility to justifice their war.

 

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[ 27. March 2004, 04:33 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]

 

I think the fact that Saddam has kinda nothing to lose makes him very unpredictable. I would not rush into Baghdad but then again Bush has to do it if he wants victory fast like it seems.

 

Gambling sites taking bets on Saddam's regime

http://www.tricityherald.com/24hour/weird/story/830832p-5854504c.html

March 28, 7:23 a.m. PST) - Think Saddam Hussein's days are numbered? Care to put a little money on it?

If so, turn your Web browser to one of the many Internet gambling sites taking bets on how long America's most wanted despot will hold onto the presidency of Iraq.

Big money is riding on the question - about $1.25 million in wagers just on one site, www.tradesports.com.

Late Thursday, the site put Saddam's chances of lasting in office through Monday at about 90 percent. But he was given only a 1 in 3 chance of being in power at the end of April.

Betonsports.com, which bills itself as the Internet's "largest, legal and licensed sportsbook," puts Saddam's chances of remaining in Baghdad until June 30 at 1 in 15. The site offers 5-to-1 odds he will be in U.S. hands by then.

Some may consider wagering on the forceful ouster of a despot to be in poor taste. Not Eric Zitzewitz, a Stanford University economics professor who is using tradesports.com as a research tool.

"Yeah, war is a terrible thing. But you'd like to have information about it," and the site has potential to provide it, he says.

Tradesports.com doesn't set any odds. Its bets are set up as futures contracts that bettors buy and sell directly to one another. The most active "Saddam security" pays $100 if Iraq's leader is ousted by March 30. If he's still ruling on that date, it pays nothing.

The future sold at around $60 when trading began back in September and it looked like Saddam had about a fair chance of lasting until spring. Then its price gradually declined to about $25 as the U.N. Security Council debated and Iraq agreed to admit weapons inspectors, a stalling tactic that increased Saddam's chances of hanging on until the end of March.

The price rebounded when in December U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell complained about the incompleteness of Iraq's weapons disclosure to the U.N. and then accused Iraq of being in "material breach" of the Security Council resolution. Then the price declined, with a brief spike in January when U.N. inspectors found warheads capable of carrying chemical weapons.

But the real action began after the bombs started to fly on March 19. The price of the March 30 Saddam future jumped from $19 to an all-time high of $88, an indication that most people believed the Iraqi leader would be out within days.

But over the weekend it became clear that the second Gulf War would be longer than the first. With the contract set to expire in less than 10 days, the price of the March 30 future quickly eroded. By Thursday afternoon it was trading at around $10.

"What's great about a financial market is you've got to put your money where your mouth is," Zitzewitz said. "It's a reasonably good proxy for what the average person thinks based on publicly available information."

Interestingly, the oil and stock markets generally move in concert with Saddam securities, according to a paper written by Zitzewitz and a Stanford colleague, Justin Wolfer, and Andrew Leigh, a student at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government

 

"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." - John Hay, 1872

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REUNION - A member of the Free Iraqi Forces reunites with family members at Umm Qasr, Iraq, on March 28. The Free Iraqi soldier is an American citizen who volunteered to help the coalition free Iraq. He has not seen his family in over ten years. U.S. Army Photo by Spc. Tyler Long

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www.dallasnews.com/opinion/viewpoints/stories/032603dnedieastland.99f4c.html

03/26/2003

Terry Eastland

'Free Iraqi Forces' underscore Bush's sincerity

The war barely had begun when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to a packed house at the Pentagon about Operation Iraqi Freedom, referred in passing to the "Free Iraqi Forces."

You can be forgiven if you wonder who they are. Few media outlets, though this newspaper is a worthy exception, have reported on them. But the story of the Free Iraqi Forces is worth observing as the war moves toward its inevitable climax.

The forces are made up exclusively of Iraqis who indeed are free - meaning they are free of Saddam Hussein. They live outside Iraq - a necessary condition of their freedom - having fled or been exiled during the dictator's long and cruel reign.

They have volunteered for the Free Iraqi Forces - a program run by the Defense Department to assist in the liberation of their homeland.

They have specific jobs. Having received the necessary training, they are assigned to U.S. military forces and work as guides and translators. At war's end, they will assist with refugee resettlement.

The U.S. Army trains the volunteers at Taszar Air Base in Hungary. They learn military customs, the Law of Armed Conflict (including the Geneva Conventions, a neglected text in the Iraqi army), map reading and first aid. They are taught how to identify land mines, use small arms in self-defense and protect themselves against weapons of mass destruction. They also are prepared to help displaced citizens and coordinate with relief agencies. Indeed, "the primary focus of the training," according to Maj. Gen. David Barno, who is in charge of the program at Taszar Air Base, "is to assist in the post-conflict arena." Early this month, the first graduates of the training program - and thus the first Free Iraqi Forces - were integrated with the U.S. military forces then massing for invasion. A second cohort will finish training soon, and a third group will begin early next week.

The Pentagon won't say exactly how many Free Iraqi Forces are in or near Iraq, but the best estimates place the number at a few hundred. The Pentagon has the resources to train as many as 3,000. Thousands have applied.

Most of the first volunteers are from the United States and range in age from 18 to 55. The Dallas Morning News recently reported that at least 16 volunteers are from the Dallas area. (Ten are Kurdish immigrants from northern Iraq; the other six are Iraqi Shiites.)

One is Kaya Ari, 45, a Kurdish immigrant who now is a U.S. citizen. He speaks five languages and is in the war zone, serving, as you might expect, as an interpreter.

Mr. Ari's wife, Heyam, told the story of how they immigrated to the United States after living three years in a squalid refugee camp in Turkey. They were driven from Iraq by Saddam Hussein's military. She says the dictator killed her grandmother, grandfather and uncles.

While the details vary, stories of that kind, involving brutality and murder, are legion. International observers of human rights say Saddam Hussein is responsible for the deaths of as many as 1 million Iraqis. No one should be surprised if he uses Iraqi citizens as human shields against the advancing coalition forces.

That Iraqis dispersed around the world should be willing to expose themselves to danger in Iraq as members of the Free Iraqi Forces is a testimony to both their bravery and their conviction that Saddam Hussein must go. For them, regime change hardly is an abstract proposition.

When President Bush said last month that "the first to benefit from a free Iraq would be the Iraqi people," those already minted as or in training to be Free Iraqi Forces understood him most deeply of all. A free Iraq, perhaps even one they can dwell in again, is what they yearn for.

The Free Iraqi Forces are witnesses to the truth, as Mr. Bush has put it, that "the human heart desires the same good things, everywhere on earth." What a glorious thing it must be to be an Iraqi expatriate wearing the uniform of the Free Iraqi Forces. For them, the liberation of Iraq can't be accomplished a day too soon.

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http://www.gwinnettdailyonline.com/GDP/archive/article148AE2CD2F944ED7994304C0E220A470.asp

Iraqi-American itching to fight Saddam

DEARBORN, Mich. - Haider Al-Jubury fled Iraq more than a decade ago after he was pulled out of high school and forced to train for the Army. Now 29, he has asked the Defense Department for permission to return to his homeland to fight alongside coalition troops trying to oust Saddam Hussein.

"There are American men my age over there fighting. I should be there, I should be the one to liberate my country," Al-Jubury said calmly as he sat with friends at Sinbad's Cafe on a recent night.

As news of the war splashed across television screens throughout the restaurant, Al-Jubury watched intently, noting nearly every development and motioning to the screens for emphasis.

"I want to fight side-by-side with the U.S. Army, shoulder to shoulder," he said. "I think it's my job and my duty."

There are some 300,000 Arab-Americans in southeast Michigan, including 30,000 in this Detroit suburb. According to the 2000 census, 30 percent of all Dearborn residents claim Arab descent, the highest in the nation.

As Al-Jubury spoke, his friends nodded in encouragement.

"So many Iraqis are wanting to serve, to liberate their country," said 40-year-old Basel Taki, of Canton, Ohio. "These people want to fight. They've paid a lot, suffered a lot."

Maha Hussein, president of Iraqi Forum for Democracy, said hundreds of Michigan Iraqi-Americans have volunteered for military service, though she doesn't know how many have been accepted.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz came to Dearborn last month to listen to Iraqis tell their stories of life under Saddam's regime. He encouraged those at the town hall-style meeting to aid the U.S. government - either in civilian or military roles.

Al-Jubury has applied to serve for the Free Iraqi Forces, a group of mostly Iraqi refugees trained to assist military operations, according to the Defense Department. They also are trained in rehabilitation efforts.

A department spokesman refused to discuss details of the Free Iraqi Forces, but the agency has said it would be allowed to train up to 3,000 people in Hungary.

Al-Jubury said he waits every day for the call to serve: "I dream about it, I talk and think about it every minute."

Al-Jubury, who owns a business in Dearborn, was just 19 when he came to Dearborn in 1992 after an Iraqi uprising violently quashed by the government. He lost a younger brother in the fighting.

"He was the first to die in our hometown" of Samawa, Al-Jubury said. Life in Iraq at the time was like "living in hell."

He said the war is necessary, though it?s difficult to watch bombs and missiles fall on the country where his aunts, uncles and an estimated 40 cousins continue to live.

He said he is not concerned about returning to the country where he once was forced to run from "relative to relative, house to house" to elude police seeking him after he fled the Iraqi Army.

"Fear is the last thing in my life," he said.

Al-Jubury said his family and friends - many of whom also would like to lend assistance in Iraq - are supportive of his desire to serve, though they are concerned about the prospect of combat.

"My mom wants me to do it, she knows it needs to be done," he said. "But at the same time she worries about me going, of course. She's a mom."

Al-Jubury hopes for a time when he will travel freely between Iraq and the United States, which he says has become a home to him. He is a member of Iraqi Youth Reunion, an educational group planning to help rebuild a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

Asked why he would want to leave the relative comfort of his life in Michigan to face battle in Iraq, Al-Jubury answered: "What more reason than a country?"

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http://www.freep.com/news/nw/iraq/troops27_20030327.htm

ACTIVIST: Iraqi man returns home with a passion to see people free

March 27, 2003

TILLIL AIRFIELD, Southern Iraq -- Hamid Murad is an Iraqi in U.S.-style fatigues. He is home, nearly. He is a soldier, but plans to go through this war in his homeland with an invading force without firing a shot.

"I want to make Iraq free. I want it free from Saddam," said the 40-year-old soldier-turned-activist who has spent the last five years as an auto parts quality control inspector in metro Detroit.

Murad is part of the Free Iraqi Forces, refugees from their country recruited by the U.S. military to travel with troops and to help transform postwar Iraq into a democracy.

"I am glad about this war," he said. "It will make what's wrong in my country right."

Murad grew up in Baghdad, one of 10 children in the family of a utility worker. After high school, he was drafted into the Iraqi army. First he served during the country's war with Iran. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he was assigned to electronics manufacturing.

None of that, he said, was by choice. In 1994, he fled to the Kurdish-controlled area of northern Iraq and in 1995, the International Committee of the Red Cross helped him secure a passport and passage as a political refugee in Syria. In 1998, relatives helped him get to Michigan.

He soon became leader of the American chapter of the Iraqi Human Rights Society.

In January, the U.S. Army asked for his help. His contacts and ability to speak Arabic made him a candidate for the Free Iraqi Forces. After two months of government training in civil affairs, he was flown to Kuwait.

This week Murad boarded a Black Hawk helicopter and returned to his homeland. He thinks he's just a week or two from returning to his beloved Baghdad, to friends and family.

"Then my work will start," he said. "I want to build a democracy. I want us to have a constitution."

[ 29. March 2003, 11:16 PM: Message edited by: Crapgame ]

 

http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/apr2003/a040303d.html

Iraqi Family Risks It All To Save American POW

By U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Joseph R. Chenelly

MARINE COMBAT HEADQUARTERS, Iraq, April 3, 2003 - New heroes have surfaced in the rescue of U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

Under the watchful eyes of more than 40 murderous gunmen, the 19-year-old supply clerk laid in Saddam Hussein Hospital suffering from at least one gunshot wound and several broken bones.

As her captors discussed amputating her leg, an Iraqi man leaned to her ear and whispered, "Don't worry." Lynch replied with a warm smile.

The man was already working with U.S. Marines to gain the critical information needed to rescue one of the first American prisoners of war in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Just a day earlier, the lawyer from An Nasiryah had walked 10 kilometers to inform American forces he knew where Lynch was being held.

The shocked Marines asked Mohammad to return to the hospital and note certain things. He was tasked with counting the guards and documenting the hospital's layout. Knowing the risk, he agreed to help the young woman he had seen only once.

"I came to the hospital to visit my wife," said the Iraqi man, whose wife is a nurse. "I could see much more security than normal."

The man, who, for his protection, will only be identified as Mohammad, asked one of the doctors about the increased security. "He told me there was a woman American soldier there."

Together, the two went to see her. Peering through the room's window, Mohammad saw a sight he claims will stay with him for a life. An Iraqi colonel slapped the soldier who had been captured after a fierce firefight, March 23. First with his palm, then with his backhand.

"My heart stopped," he said in a soft tone. "I knew then I must help her be saved. I decided I must go to tell the Americans."

Just days earlier, Mohammad saw a woman's body dragged through his neighborhood. He said "the animals" were punishing the woman for waving at a coalition helicopter. The brutal demonstration failed to deter him from going to the Marines.

The same day he first saw Lynch, he located a Marine checkpoint. Worried he'd be mistaken for an attacker in civilian clothes, he approached the Marines with his hands high above his head.

"[A Marine sentry] asked, 'What you want?'" Mohammad said. "I want to help you. I want to tell you important information - about Jessica!"

After talking with the Marines, he returned to the hospital to gather information.

"I went to see the security," he said. "I watched where they stood, where they sat, where they ate and when they slept."

While he observed Saddam's henchmen, the notorious regime death squad paid Mohammad's home an unexpected visit. His wife and 6-year-old daughter fled to nearby family. Many of his personal belongings, including his car, were seized.

"I am not worried for myself," he said. "Security in Iraq [that is still] loyal to Saddam will kill my wife. They will kill my [child]."

Meanwhile, Mohammad accompanied his friend into Lynch's tightly guarded room. She was covered up to her chin by a white blanket. Her head was bandaged. A wound on the right leg was in bad condition.

"The doctors wanted to cut her leg off," he said "My friend and I decided we would stop it."

Creating numerous diversions, they managed to delay the surgery long enough. "She would have died if they tried it."

Mohammad walked through battles in the city streets for two straight days to get to back to the hospital. His main mission was to watch the guards, but each morning he attempted to keep Lynch's spirits strong with a "good morning" in English.

He said she was brave throughout the ordeal.

When reporting back to the Marines on March 30, he brought five different maps he and his wife had made. He was able to point to the exact room the captured soldier was being held in. He also handed over the security layout, reaction plan and times that shift changes occurred.

He had counted 41 bad guys, and determined a helicopter could land on the hospital's roof. It was just the information the Marines needed.

American forces conducted a nighttime raid April 1. Lynch was safely rescued. She has since been transported to a medical facility in Germany.

Mohammad and his family are now in a secure location and have been granted refugee status. He doesn't feel safe in An Nasryah, but he hopes things will improve as the war against the regime advances.

"Iraq is not a safe place while Saddam Hussein is in power," Mohammad said. "He kills the Iraqi people whenever he wants. I believe the Americans will bring peace and security to the people of Iraq."

Mohammad's wife said she wants to volunteer to help injured or sick American forces in the future.

"America came here to help us," he said. "The Marines are brave men. They have been gentle with the Iraqi people. They are taking out Saddam Hussein. For that, we're grateful."

Mohammad's family hopes to meet Lynch in the future.