Okay. That's just odd.
Good read.
The Iraqi government needs to get it out - loud and clear - that the insurgents are routinely using mosques as weapons sites and sniper areas. If the Iraqi people know who it is that's really desecrating the mosques, maybe it will help turn public opinion against the insurgents. On the other hand, maybe the Iraqis will choose to remain in denial about this.
"in the street outside, a ship mine stood in a puddle."
Okay. That's just odd.
Good read
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Call me insane, but I think I can guess where that ship mine came from. When I was still in the Nav I recall reading about the provenance of the mines that the Iraqis were sowing in the Straits of Hormuz during the "tanker wars" (1986-1988). Its alternatingly fascinating and ridiculous. The mines were of the simple contact variety (aka: the knobby, cable-anchored cartoon image) manufactured for the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. They passed through numerous hands over the decades. They sat in the armories of Kim Il Sung for a long time and were finally sold off as a job lot to Saddam in the eighties. The fact that these museum pieces still worked and could still wreak such havoc created a great deal of consternation and institutional soul-searching in the U.S. Navy at the time. Particularly the fact that Mr. Lehman's "500 Ship Navy" had given such short shrift to such unglamorous vessels as minesweepers.
"a ship mine stood in a puddle"
Put it over in that puddle Ahmed. It only works in water.
Perhaps they were waiting for their ship to come in, so they could mine it (in the insurgent tradition.)