British Tanks Wipe Out Iraqi Soviet-Made Tanks Around Basra (Target aquired, FIRE!)

World Tribune ^ | March 27, 2003 | World Tribune

[JudgeAmint]

British tanks wipe out Iraqi Soviet-made tanks around Basra

Iraqi armored units have proven to be no match to British main battle tanks.

Officials said Britain's Challenger-2 tanks have easily picked off Iraqi T-55 tanks around the southern city of Basra. So far, they said, scores of Soviet-origin T-55 tanks have been destroyed in battles around Basra over the last two days.

On Thursday, officials reported the destruction of 14 Iraqi tanks, believed to have been T-55s. Iraq first obtained the T-55 in the mid-1960s and some of them were upgraded in the 1980s.

Officials said Iraq appears to have reserved its advanced T-72 tanks for protection of the Baghdad area.

[Steel and Fire and Stone]

I'm SO tired of the TV news, even Fox. Hour after hour of talking heads speculating about the War. It'd be nice if some channel simply told what is known about the war in nice, short, complete sentences, every 15 minutes or so. I have to listen to the tube for an hour before I realize that THEY DON'T KNOW what the heck is going out there!

FReegards..SFS

[Wallace T.]

India doesn't need to use these 1950s era Soviet hand me downs. America and Britain need to attend to bringing India over to the Allied side. India is the natural enemy of the Muslim world and China and would be a invaluable ally in southern Asia. Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld, along with their British equivalents, need to spend lots of time in India and offer them modern American and British aircraft, tanks, and military technology, and ultimately, military alliance.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was supposed to have said that he would like to have the Lord on his side, but he had to have Kentucky on his side. India may be as crucial in what may be a new division of the world's powers in our time.

[Travis McGee]

T-55's are terrific for crushing peasant rebellions.

I hope their crews are in a hot corner of hell.

[Burkeman1]

AGREE! good post.

[Technogeeb]

America and Britain need to attend to bringing India over to the Allied side

I would suggest that we do no such thing. Our current policy of economic engagement seems to be doing the job a lot better than the screw-ups in the State department could possibly manage. I have a LOT of Indian friends, and the non-muslim ones are already about as pro-America as you can get. It is only a matter of time until these people become the dominant force in the Indian government, and once that happens the alliance will occur naturally. India has a lot of problems it has to solve (government corruption, etc), but the people there can solve them as long as we don't interfere. Engaging the current government will only make things worse, since any support for the current governmental structure is likely to delay desperately needed reforms.

[phothus]

www.strategypage.com
it's not as up to date as I'd like, but they seem to have a good picture of what's going on...

[Shooter 2.5]

Since you mentioned Lincoln, I might as well tell this story since we have had more than a few references on God's wrath in this conflict.

Lincoln was asked if God was on the Union's side and he said he didn't know but it was important that we were on his side.

[Ford Fairlane]

I hate to brag, but me & a few of my buddies designed the fuel injection system on that engine

[JudgeAmint]

Outstanding...no fuel, and the big guys can't do what they like best. Hunt Iraqi aluminum cans, with treads!!! LOL

[Ford Fairlane]

Their mechanics probably cuss us, It's a bastardised CAT system stuck in the Perkins engine, still gets most of the power & keeps the greenie weenies happy on emissions - of course the tolerances are + - 3 mil, so any little bit of sand that gets by the fuel filter....

[Ford Fairlane]

ooops.. brain fart... thats + - 3 MICRON, not mil

It's late & i've had a few Guinness

[risk]

This is indeed good news, but I would ask our commanders to avoid overconfidence until we are totally victorious. Who knows but exposing small groups of tanks like this is just a tactic to lead our forces into a trap of believing in their own "vast" superiority. Iraq has had 20 years to plan for this war.

[Forceful1]

Hi tscislaw,

Dont know if this is any help to u but BBC has a constant live internet feed of its News 24 programme, devoted to Iraq, linked from its main page here http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Linked as "Live Video" near top of page and uses Real Player.
Cheers,
F1

[FReepaholic]

>>...Dont know if this is any help to u but BBC has a constant live internet feed of its News 24 programme, devoted to Iraq...<<

Thanks!

(as luck would have it, just as I posted my rant about not getting any news, I picked up a FOX affilliate on my "rabbit ears" antenna, that was showing FOX News. They normally do not show the news, just entertainment shows on this affilliate)

[error99]

bump

[Forgiven_Sinner]

"In other news Canada's PM Jean Cretin announced his intention to upgrade Canada's armor corps from the currently aging Leopard 1's to new T-55's....."

He got them at low cost, slightly used, from Iraq . . .

[KneelBeforeZod]

limbaugh and a caller agreed that the M1 Abrams is useless in a sandstorm because they can't target anything. what about the Challenger? it must have a similar system

[FreedomPoster]

>>Hopefully the Brits can spare one of those T-55s for the museum.

There are already enough of them in the West to provide one to any military museum that wanted one, courtesy of the Israelis.

[joanil]

Helpless perhaps, but then again, nobody else can target them in the sandstorm. So, there they sit, they just bide their time, awaiting the sandstorm to end so that they can go about their mission. Like Rummy said.....heat and sand bother both sides equally.

[Wallace T.]

It would be nice if we could wait until India evloved into a free market economy with a cleaner, less corrupt government. Certainly, India took a wrong turn in the first 40 years after their independence, under a socialistic regime. However, the Allies may not have the luxury of time in this regard. If France and Germany stay hostile, Russia slides into authoritarian rule under ex-KGB officers who dream of restoring the Soviet Empire, China moves more boldly as a world power bent on dominating the Pacific Rim, and the Muslim nations fall out of the Western orbit and into radical Islam and/or alliance with Russia, China, France, and Germany, America and Britain will need more allies. (I hope that none of the "ifs" I stated above come true!)