Posted on 03/25/2003 12:01:39 PM PST by GulliverSwift
MAR. 24, 2003: IRAQI REALITY TV
Jed Babbin
NRO Contributor
The question lingers: Why is Iraqi government television still able to broadcast? The "shock and awe" campaign was supposed to have left the symbols and mechanisms of Saddam's power in ruins. How then can we expect his troops to mutiny or his forces to surrender if they are bombarded as often by Saddam's televised propaganda as they are by coalition aircraft? The now-daily images of captured Americans gives credence to Iraqi claims that the coalition will not win. Everyone in Iraq must remember 1991 when we stopped short of Baghdad. Their choice is between a possible liberation by the coalition and the certainty of brutality if Saddam manages to survive. Saddam remains in power so long as he--or his minions--can broadcast his message. The "intelligence" we can garner from its broadcasts cannot be of much use. The fall of Iraqi television will hasten our victory. Why is it still broadcasting? We need to knock them off the air pronto.
We will have a few days to contemplate this because the weather has gone bad again. The forecast is for severe sandstorms in the next couple of days, which means progress on the ground will be slowed and helicopters won't be able to operate in many areas. This will leave both sides with time to contemplate what comes next.
Coalition forces are less than fifty miles from Baghdad. Three Republican Guard divisions protect the approaches to Baghdad: the Medina in the west, the Baghdad in the south and the Alnedaa in the east. American, Brit and Aussie forces will take them on when the storms abate, but the air forces' assault on them has--fortunately--already begun. It will continue even through the weather. Special forces operating in the area have been feeding their GPS data into the data banks in Tommy Franks's HQ and in the AWACS air control aircraft. When the storms blow, the satellites are unaffected. The smart munitions dropped by our aircraft can find their targets in the weather.
General Tommy Franks has finally bitten the bullet and recognized that the three remaining Republican Guard Divisions need to be hit long and hard from the air before any major ground assault. Yesterday's helo operation--which proved the Apache Longbow a great helo, but not up to the role of bombers--went bad because the Buffs, B-1s, and B-2s hadn't been there first. It also went bad because--according to one source--the Army helo drivers weren't using their connection to Air Force JSTARS aircraft. JSTARS--a battle manager--provides detailed info on what the bad guys have, where they have it, and where it's going. Why the Army helo guys weren't joined at the hip to JSTARS is something Gen. Franks should be worried about.
It has taken less than a week to reach Baghdad, where the Republican Guards will stand and fight, at least for a while. They will surround themselves with civilian hostages, fake surrenders and kill our men whenever and however they can. Now is the time and this is the place for "shock and awe." Let them sit there for a few days, under an unrelenting bombardment. There will be some civilians killed, but the blood of those civilians will be on Saddam's hands, not ours. I--for one--am unwilling to pay the butcher's bill that could result from much infantry and some armor assaulting the well-dug-in Republican Guard, manning positions they have had a decade to prepare. That sort of idiocy went out with the battles of Verdun, and the Marne, didn't it? We must make sure it did. With apologies to the Bard: cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of air war. For a few days, at least. And for heaven's sake, knock that damned TV station off the air.
Then there's the "shock and awe." I bet that was dreamed up by some civilian "thinkers." And the last thing you do is tell everyone about it. Psychologists know that once someone knows he's trying to be manipulated, the strategy no longer works. But maybe it has worked for some people. I'm sure the civilian think tanks are "shocked and awed" at how their theories have failed.
Because So Damn Insane put his TV broadcasting station in a day care center. Americans are not animals like Saddam (So Damn Insane)
(1. Shutting down TV and 2. Not hurting innoncents)
That's right, EMP that sucker!
My kid's daycare center is empty at night.
I’d heard that some outfit out of Pennsylvania was flying around Iraq in special planes that can disrupt TV and radio signals and re-broadcast instructions for people to tune to a certain radio frequency. They simultaneously transmit on that frequency surrender instructions and other information.
So they’re trying to use Iraq’s TV/radio to get information to people.
Think about it, thousands of small local investors have made television stations in the U.S. It can't cost more than some cruise missiles.
How about this idea? We are monitoring Iraqi TV. Why? Because the Iraqi's use it to send information, via encrypted channel on some of the unused bandwidth of regular broadcast TV, like Closed Captioning does. We can hear what they are saying to their troops in the field. As soon as that becomes of no use to us, like, when the seige begins, its "lights out" for TV Baghdad.
But then so what, the truth is known so bomb it at night.Bet me Saddam has women and children in it 24/7 as shields though.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.