So this is Plan B, the 'Hail Mary' play from the North (facing defeat US forces are desperate)

Irish Independent ^ | Rupert Cornwell in Washington

[SERE_DOC]

How about this to the Irish (not so)Indepentend

With respects to the admin moderator pull it if you must.

[Geostorm]

Last time I looked Bush wasn't holed up in a bunker waiting for the cruise missle with his name on it. I'm begining to believe way too many people are on drugs these days because they don't make any sense. Tell Saddam "This ain't Dodge City and you ain't Bill Hichock"

[Geostorm]

Last time I looked Bush wasn't holed up in a bunker waiting for the cruise missle with his name on it. I'm begining to believe way too many people are on drugs these days because they don't make any sense. Tell Saddam "This ain't Dodge City and you ain't Bill Hichock"

[bvw]

Gee whiz, how is it that a recent effective war mopde wasn;t war-gamed? The technicals of Somlaia, Hackworth's bad dream "Viet Nam" ground only supply line harrassment . No way, Jose. Can't use that ticket for the double feature.

[tracer]

"To read this drivel, one would thing that Saddam's forces are encamped around Washington."

Uh, have you ridden in a DC cab lately?? 8~)

[Pukka Puck]

Try that again in English this time.

[bvw]

War gaming tests plans against some realistic scenarios ... those would surely have included use of the death-squad militias as we had to deal with in Somalia, or even in Haiti, in conflicts of recent years. The "technicals" are pickup trucks and suv-type vehicles outfitting with bigger mounted machine guns -- they were used in Somalia.

[WhiskeyPapa]

The senior ground commander then does not mention a single thing about the timetable for troops being deployed being stepped up. You are a fraud and a blowhard.

The media had plenty of ephemeral reports of units being shipped who were not originally supposed to go or who were being sent before it was programmed, to substantiate the idea of a "scramble" was on to get more boots on the ground.

Last night on NPR Rumsfield's comments were aired in which he now calls this op "Tommy Franks' plan." One of the talking heads ----I think the one from the Brookings institute -- said that a week ago he wouldn't have called it Tommy Franks' plan. It's not going as well as we would like.

This, combined with his desire to shift money from anti-terror to ICBM missile defense, in my mind, meas that the jury is still out on Rumsfield. You disagree, fine.

Walt

[WhiskeyPapa]

So Rumsfeld's faux pas was not in having to go to a stepped up timetable, it was in failing to anticipate every conceivable tactic the enemy might engage in. You are a shifty SOB, aren't you?

In 1991, we assumed the Iraqis would fight. This time, we did not. We made an assumption. The plan this time was predicated on them rolling over and playing dead, especially in the south. This assumption violated a -basic- operational tenet. It was not an issue of "every conceivable tactic."

Walt

[m1911]

I think WP is off track, but I also think the "weeks not months" quote is supposed to be from a Face the Nation interview, not this Meet the Press show.

In any case, saying "weeks not months" was too optimistic less than two weeks into the war seems premature.

[verity]

I have made it a life-long habit to not believe anyone named Rupert.

[Vigilantcitizen]

Posted by wretchard...

All of the operations against H2, H3, Talil, Bashur and Umm Qasar were preplanned in anticipation of the actual logistical requirements that Tommy Franks envisioned. He knew he would need them at the outset. Why? The manual calls for 150 lbs/day/soldier for consumables alone. That's 4,500 tons daily to support the present force. When the 4th ID arrives, it will require another 2,000 tons per day. At the end of a 300 mile line of communications.

Franks sprinted to Baghdad with a single mech infantry division because he couldn't do it with two, even if it were on hand, because the logistical tail from Kuwait wouldn't support it. The whole purpose of getting 3rd ID to Baghdad was to nail down the IRG so that the logistical objectives could be seized with impunity. The IRG can't go north to Bashur, for example, to lever out the 173rd brigade because of where 3rd ID is. And this was forseen. The press is treating these logistical seizures as nonevents, when in strategic terms, they are the main events. They are the whole point of the dash to Baghdad.

Tommy Frank's command is not combat power limited. At present, it is logistically limited. A third of the command (101st Airborne and 82nd's 325th Brigade) haven't even seen action. Adding 4 ID without developing the logistics bases would add exactly nothing to V Corps. The US Army knows logistics, if knows nothing else. Dropping troops without a logistical plan is something the French army does (6,000 paratroopers into Dien Bien Phu without any line of supply except a dirt airfield). It is not what the US Army does.


11 posted on 03/28/2003 7:19 PM EST by wretchard

[WhiskeyPapa]

That all sounds good to me.

I would ask why General Wallace is ratting out Rumsfield. That is amazing.

Has anyone else noted that William Wallace was also the guy in "Braveheart"?

Walt

[ItsJeff]

"bo\rlum alert." (Gaelic for sudden vomiting.)

If that's what passes for journalism, they NEED a word for "sudden vomiting."

[ItsJeff]

You have no idea what that massive Irish media intelligence operation has uncovered...

My dad has a copy of the Times of Dublin, reporting on Chappaquiddic. The headline is, "God Spares Senator Kennedy!" (including the exclamation point)

[Pukka Puck]

In 1991, we assumed the Iraqis would fight. This time, we did not. We made an assumption. The plan this time was predicated on them rolling over and playing dead, especially in the south. This assumption violated a -basic- operational tenet. It was not an issue of "every conceivable tactic."

Wrong. If we thought that the Iraqis were not going to fight, then we would have only put in ten or twenty thousand troops instead of well over 100,000 troops with provisions in the plan to bring in well over 100,000 more troops, who are now in the pipeline. Ten or twenty thousand would have been much less expensive and would have been plenty of troops if their only job was to accept surrenders.

The ferocity and fanatic nature of the attacks by the irregular troops on our supply lines is somewhat surprising, but they are not strategically significant.

Overall, the plan is going well. The war is going well. Given that the enemy has a vote in how this war is going to be fought and it that it is not solely up to American planners to script out every move weeks in advance, I'd say our forces have done very well indeed.

The fact that the war is going so well seems to cause those who were against it in the first place much discomfort, thus the nitpicking, naysaying, and second-guessing among the leftist media and other assorted anti-Americans, among whom we find WP. You are known by the company you keep and you belong among the Rumsfeld bashing liberals, your fellow travelers.

[Pukka Puck]

"Last night on NPR"

That is the second time you have referred to NPR. You are showing your true colors. I have long ago stopped listening to "All Things Considered from an Extremely Leftist Viewpoint" since they so obviously have a very big ax to grind. It makes sense, though, since you are obviously interested in grinding an ax and not at all interested in the objective truth.

You can take your ephemeral leftist media reports and shove them where the sun doesn't shine. Your pretense of being a patriotic, conservative American, simply concerned about the efficacy of our plan has been unmasked by your repeated use of NPR as your source.

[Pukka Puck]

Save a cup for WP too.

[Pukka Puck]

"I would ask why General Wallace is ratting out Rumsfeld. That is amazing."

General Wallace is not ratting out Rumsfeld. The rat reporters from the weasel papers, The New York Times and the Washington Times are trying to twist General Wallace's words to make it appear that there is dissention in the ranks.

These reporters are liberal anti-war, anti-American connivers and you are obviously cut from the same cloth. You are not fooling anyone but yourself if you think any conservative is buying their or your BS.

[Bob J]

I'm surprised he was able to type with a bottle of Guiness in each hand.