Posted on 03/19/2006 7:48:44 AM PST by frankjr
But contrary to what many many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war. ("Air Assault" is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area.) In fact, there were no airstrikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op. What’s more, there were no shots fired at all and the units had met no resistance, said the U.S. and Iraqi commanders.
The operation, which doubled the population of the flat farmland in one single airlift, was initiated by intelligence from Iraq security forces, says Lt Col Skip Johnson commander of the 187 Battallion, 3rd Combat Brigade of the 101st Airborne. "They have the lead," he said to reporters at the second stop of the tour. But by Friday afternoon, the major targets seemed to have slipped through their fingers. Iraqi Army General Abdul Jabar says that Samarra-based insurgent leader Hamad el Taki of Mohammad’s Army was thought to be in the area, and Iraqi intelligence officers were still working to compare known voice recordings and photographs with the prisoners in custody.
Before loading up into the helicopters for a return trip to Baghdad, Iraqi and American soldiers and some reporters helped themselves to the woman’s freshly baked bread, tearing bits off and chewing it as they wandered among the cows. For most of them, it was the only thing worthwhile they’d found all day.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
My first thought was - the bad guys were warned.
How would the press have portrayed Swarmer if instead of the "cordon and search" operation it was planned to be, it turned out to be pitched battle? A severe defeat. And how does the press account for the absence of American casualties and the feeble performance of the fabled and invincible Resistance in Samarra itself, where in years past dozens of Americans had died in combat and into which Iraqi government forces dared not go? A "fizzle".Here's the permalink.
For the MSM, the U.S. is always wrong, and always on the brink of a well-deserved defeat.
Here's Mohammed's take on the Swarmer from "Iraq the Model" ---
A look at the Swarmer.
In a statement for the al-Qaeda linked "Shura Council of Mujahideen" in response to operation Swarmer, the terror group predicts this operation to be a failure "just like all previous operations".
What I noticed in this particular statement is the tone which came significantly calm when compared with similar statement during equally large offensives like in Fallujah or Tal Afar when the terrorists even threatened to use unconventional weapons and promised to "make the earth shake beneath the infidels".
This time the comment of al-Qaeda was as if the operation represented little if any threat to their men and assets.
So what's really happening? Is Swarmer a mere political theater? Show business? Professional military quest? Or what?
Through my humble military knowledge, the participating force is way larger than the size of the assaulted targets. All we heard from US or Iraqi officials about accomplished objectives was the capture of 50 or 60 suspects (no big names or top ranking al-Qaeda leaders), IED making materials, several missiles and 70 lbs of TNT, i.e. almost the everyday finding of weapon caches. Let alone that we didn't see any footage of the reportedly confiscated weapon caches.
(Numbers from a statement for the spokesman of Iraqi defense ministry)
I tend to believe that the primary objective of the operation is to polish the skills of future battalion-size airborne Iraqi units through real-time action against real targets and to move Iraqi forces to the stage where they can take the initiative instead of waiting for the enemy to make the first move.
As the maps show, the area where the operation is taking place is surrounded by a number of medium and large sized US and Iraqi bases and using helicopters in such great numbers is more expensive, complicated and has little advantage over ground transport of troops and you don't really need helicopters to gain the surprise factor when approaching the open plains, semi-desert area takes slightly more than an hour in vehicles from the nearest bases.
But I think Iraqi forces can benefit greatly from this kind of experience given the relatively small number of these troops compared to the area they need to cover which makes air deployment of troops vital for having quick response abilities especially when Iraqi troops are planned to become responsible for security in a growing amount of territory over time.
I also suspect there are other two possible dimensions for the operation; one deals with morale and the other is a long-term military plan to cut the lines of transportation between the eastern and western areas of action of the insurgency that pass through the rural areas near and around Samarra.
The morale dimension can be summarized in the fact that the security forces in charge (US and Iraq) are asked to take action that can antagonize the threat represented here by the terrorists' attack on the golden dome mosque of Samarra that gave rise to great tension on the streets and jeopardized the unity of the country.
The government promised to respond to the challenge and catch the perpetrators and I tend to think that the operation is targeting the suspected bases used by the group that blew up the mosque.
If the troops do have this objective in their mission brief, then I think there's a good chance to get this particular terror group busted.
Even if the last part is not among the objectives, hearing a better evaluation of the performance of the participating Iraqi troops will be enough reward.
I would like to see a rafter ( platoon,covey, pod?) of reporters hit a hot LZ.
But wasn't it the same lamestream media that splashed large headlines saying it was the largest air operation of the war???
I mean, don't they research events and double check sources, etc, etc...before they go to print???
Idiot MSM. It never *was* a huge operation, just another cordon-and-search... that just happened to have more Iraqi than US forces, and happened to use a lot of helicopters. Check this comment from "Iraq the Model":
"Through my humble military knowledge, the participating force is way larger than the size of the assaulted targets. All we heard from US or Iraqi officials about accomplished objectives was the capture of 50 or 60 suspects (no big names or top ranking al-Qaeda leaders), IED making materials, several missiles and 70 lbs of TNT, i.e. almost the everyday finding of weapon caches. Let alone that we didn't see any footage of the reportedly confiscated weapon caches.
(Numbers from a statement for the spokesman of Iraqi defense ministry)
I tend to believe that the primary objective of the operation is to polish the skills of future battalion-size airborne Iraqi units through real-time action against real targets and to move Iraqi forces to the stage where they can take the initiative instead of waiting for the enemy to make the first move."
----
In other words, the US and Iraqi is using Samarra as an 'exercise' to see how the large-scale coordination and logistics is working, as well as do it in an area of 'interest' - Samarra.
As far as news footage to air, this was pretty tame. My favorite news footage was seeing AT-4 rounds going into Uday and Qusay's house.
The Iraqis have shown their people that they are not the army of untrained conscripts that Saddam beat into submission, starved, and threatened. Instead, they now have an all volunteer army that is sworn to protect the Iraqi people and they have just shown the Iraqi people (and their enemies) that they are quite capable of doing just that.
"skeptical miltary analysts in the employ of certain left-wing, anti-American, war-haters, whose credentials are that they can tell a torpedoman from a flight engineer."
"But wasn't it the same lamestream media that splashed large headlines saying it was the largest air operation of the war???"
Right, and it was our *own* military who downplayed this from the get-go as not being more significant than a number of recent sweep operations.
Compare with more important US operations that have been ignored by the media:
http://messopotamian.blogspot.com/
"
However, it would be very unfair to the allied forces (mainly American) and their leadership, to belittle the tremendous efforts and sacrifices in the course of the past three years, and to underestimate the successes and achievements that were made. For instance, I have noticed that many in the States itself do not really understand the nature of military actions on the ground here. Thus, for example, the effective, sustained and carefully planned series of military operations in the western Euphrates valley of the Anbar province have been quite successful in largely pacifying this most dangerous hotbed of the insurgency, and while admittedly not completely subduing all subversive elements there, nevertheless averted a complete takeover of this large swath of the country by the enemy and creating an extremely dangerous base in which he would have been in complete control with open lines of communications, supply and logistic support from the west ( i.e. Syria and Jordan), while cutting off the country from its western boundaries. The American forces carried out the Anbar campaign mainly with little help from any other party. Some people have expressed exasperation regarding these operations thinking that they were isolated actions against an illusive and mobile enemy, whereas in fact there was a careful plan to drive the enemy on two fronts. The first front was from the east from Falluja pressing the enemy westward. The other front, which soon followed, was starting from the extreme west at the Syrian border at Al Qaim, driving the enemy eastward. The result of this campaign to date is that most terrorists are cornered nowadays in the Ramadi area, which is mid-way between Baghdad and the Western border, with much of the Anbar out of their reach. Another outcome of this campaign was that quite significant tribes of the western region turned against the terrorists, astonishingly led by that fierce “Karabila” tribe which erstwhile used to be considered one of the worst terrorist sympathizers. Nowadays, the “Karabila” together with some other quite powerful tribes of the western “Dulaim” are actively fighting against the terrorists led by the flamboyant and lovable Shaikh “Ussama Al-Jadaan”. This is the so-called “ Tribal Nakhwa forces” (Nakhwa is one of those untranslatable words meaning when one rises up in noble indignation and joins the fight in aid of a just cause). Even allowing for the bombastic and enthusiastic nature of Shaikh Ussama, no one can deny that the Nakhwa forces at least secured a large and strategic area near the important Qaim town on the Syrian border. Furthermore I can state with certainty that most of the people in the Anbar are thoroughly sick and fed up with the terrorists, having tasted Taliban style treatment (or worse) at their hands for such a long time."
I heard Rowan Scarborough (sp?) on the radio Friday. He called it a live fire exercise for Iraqi troops.
But contrary to what many many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war.
Since I don't watch 'network' news, I don't know if anything is "contrary". But on FNC it was always correctly called the "Largest Air Assault".
That being said, if the numb nuts talking head 'news readers' at the networks DID call it 'largest use of airpower' they should all be fired on the spot.
They report as if they are in the war room and know every phase of the operation, and know directly from the Generals in charge of the op that the mission was a failure.
This is purely speculative journalism.
That was a truly happy inspiring moment. I loved it!
Exactly. In fact, I would argue the fact that we are NOT finding large numbers of "insurgents" to kill indicates we are kicking @ss so much that, like the Japanese at the end of WW II, they are running out of suicide bombers. Maybe they should try the U.S. Dem Party as a recruiting station?
You got it. Fortunately, we did not have to have a "Dieppe-type" raid where we lost 1/3 of the attacking force to get that experience. This is a tremendously valuable and successful operation. Only the idiot MSM could miss this.
Exactly right.
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