[Diddley]

Hmmmmmm.

[Naspino]

...so well trained that they left all of this for us...

[yonif]

"13 French-made Milan anti-tank rockets"

How ironic.

[Diddley]

I forgot this:

— Mark Oliva is embedded with the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment.

[Illbay]

Okay, so they were well-organized, well-equipped, well-trained...

And nowhere to be found because they were GONE.

Give me a ****ing break, man. I'm sick of this kind of "Iraqi bogey-man" cr*p.

[xm177e2]

The Marines collected tan and olive Iraqi uniforms, black berets and boots. They also found a unit roster that they believe details the members of Iraqi 3rd Battalion, 47th Brigade, 11th Infantry Division. The Iraqi unit, garrisoned near Nasiriyah, surrendered to U.S. troops and sat out the fighting.

When the media reports this sort of thing, it only leaves those surrenderring soldiers' families vulnerable to Saddam. The media should not give out such explicit information about unit numbers.

[RS]

"Iraqi trenches show soldiers better trained than thought"
"While the Iraqi soldiers were gone, they had left behind significant quantities of weapons, chemical protective gear, food stores and even unit rosters. "

Sure - well trained units leave all this stuff around when they re-position.

[laz17]

“I’m shocked at how well-organized they are,”

I'm shocked, saddened, and deeply concerned.

So... where are all those brave Iraqi soldiers who ran off and left all of their stuff behind?

[Hank Rearden]

"But, but, but . . . I bet these were elites - they had shoes!"

[aspidistra]

Flip-flops? No Ho-Chis?

[livis_dad]

Well trained, organized, equipped, all for what?

To run for their lives.

[edsheppa]

I'm starting to see their nefarious plan: our guys will sprain their backs lifting all the crap they leave behind in their abandoned positions.

[XJarhead]

When snipers from the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment

23rd Marines is a reserve unit. I wasn't aware that Marine reserve infantry regiments were active in the assault.

[hollywood]

All the NBC gear...

Another network name defined:
- ABC = Al-Jazeera Broadcasting Company
- CBS = See B.S.
- NBC = Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical.

Seem appropriate.

[marshmallow]

The fact that the trenches left by a disappearing group of Iraqi fighters impresses us, says rather more about our initial perception of their capabilities than it does about the Iraqis. We must have truly thought that they would roll out the red carpet for us and provide us with an escort to Baghdad.

[Hacksaw]

They leave all their equipment behind and that reflects good training?

[Publius6961]

Iraqi trenches show soldiers better trained than thought

Well, the "children-for-shields" certainly are well trained.

Happy to call those "brave" soldiers "sand-maggots"

[White Mountain]

From the article: "I’m shocked at how well-organized they are," said Sgt. Fred Kittman, part of the sniper team that uncovered the trench line. "We were told that these Iraqi units down this way weren’t this well-supplied and trained." ... "It looked liked everyone just walked off the line and stripped down," said Kittman. "You could see flip-flop impressions leading away from the fighting positions."

Looks like these farmers by day and soldiers by night don't have a place to stow their gear while they are farming -- or maybe they had to fade into the countryside on very short notice.

[metesky]

The Iraqis dropped their sh!t and ran, but look here they had decent sh!t.

This shows they are better soldiers than those who drop bad sh!t and run away.

[metesky]

I hate when these freaks hijack a thread with crossover bickering and religious mumbo-jumbo.