Posted on 06/30/2007 8:43:56 PM PDT by bnelson44
Breaking: U.S. Dispatches Two Battalions To Al Anbar In Emergency Move To Battle Al Qaeda’s Revenge Mission Against Sunni Tribes
You won’t find this story anywhere in the MSM. But my military sources in Baghdad and elsewhere have confirmed to me that 1. beginning yesterday, Thursday, July 28th, two U.S. battalions began moving into Al Anbar to hunt Al Qaeda members smuggled out of Baghdad through Fallujah and Ramadi, and 2. that Al Qaeda has launched not so much a military campaign to retake Al Anbar, but a revenge campaign against its Sunni denizens, and most specifically its denizens’ Sheiks, who routed them out of the province and into a few mixed Sunni/Shiite areas in and around Baghdad. Al Qaeda harbors the illusion that by kiling the Sheiks, it will be able to subjugate the entire Sunni population of the huge province, and govern it as a separte Al Qaeda Sharia state. This is a fool’s game. Al Qaeda doesn’t have the numbers to pull it off, and the only reason it thrived in Al Anbar in the first placeis because the locals gave them cover from the hunting U.S. forces, as well as other vital forms of support. But as often happens when one lacks many other options, Al Qaeda is throwing out logic and merely acting in revenge, and acting to chase an impossible dream. So far, a few more Sunni sheiks have been murdered since the hotel bombing. They will not last by making the Sunnis their enemies, because they ultimately lack the numbers and force to subjugate them. There will be bloodshed, but they can only lose.
Developing…
(Excerpt) Read more at patdollard.com ...
That’s why we are protecting them and we are telling all of Iraq we are proteting them.
Unit is the great catch all word. When I am talking to my son and I don’t know what else to call a group of men he is with, I call it a unit and it works fine ;->
Right on! Back in the mid-90s when I was working this stuff, the Batallion was conceptually a unit that could be rapidly inserted into a geographic position, and fight for about 30 days independently. If you read between the lines, this “capability” is more than just soldiers. It includes logistics, planning, intel, etc... the whole package. The Batallion was the basic building block for mobility planning purposes. It looks like this concept has been supersized to the Brigade for some purposes now...
By the way, the Brigade Combat Team is the larger (3-5 combat battalions of different types, plus all support units) independent unit. BCTs can act completely independently for prolonged periods of time. Here is the website of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team
I saw one of those sheiks in Anbar say that Begdad would settle down, if Anbar was dealt with. Apparently the problems are related. In fact, it now sounds like Bagdad triouble comes from the surrounding areas.
Thanks to all of you for the very useful information. What I’ve learned from this thread will help me better understand these reports from Iraq and Afghanistan. Off to church now. We pray for the safety of our troops, and for the success of their mission.
Make sure you read:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1859145/posts
So you know why they are fighting.
Formations have also tended to get a bit larger over the last 60 years or so. A World War II army division might be 10,000 or 11,000 men, now a division is likely to be closer to 13,000.
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