Republican Guard Division Routed at Kut

AP | Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | By CHRIS TOMLINSON

[JohnHuang2]

Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Quote of the Day by The Wizard

[Cyber Liberty]

I think the fabled Iraqi "red line" is made out of the same stuff as Quadafi's "line of death" around Libya.

[kevao]

It's amazing what our troops can accomplish with a failed plan, no supplies, and not nearly enough boots on the ground.

[m1911]

I can't understand why we're taking bridges. Do the Iraqi commanders on the scene not have standing orders to blow them? Who the hell would let an opposing force take all these bridges?

[jwalburg]

Army Lt. Col. Scott Rutter

Not to be confused with Scott Ritter.

[dfwgator]

This is a "line of death." You cross it, you die.
OK, this is another "line of death," cross it, die.
Another line of death.
Another.
And Another.
OK, that's it, you knock on my door, I'm not coming out, nyaaah!!

[r9etb]

destroying one division of Saddam Hussein's battle-hardened Republican Guard

Battle-hardened? The last time the RG actually fought in a war was back in the '80s against Iran.

Since then they've absorbed US bombs in '91, and murdered Kurds since then.

Today they are facing an organized ground force for the first time in 15+ years.

[JohnHuang2]

It's amazing what our troops can accomplish with a failed plan, no supplies, and not nearly enough boots on the ground.

And during an Operational Pause, to boot! ;)

[Spruce]

"The Baghdad Division no longer exists, and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force is moving on,"

"We took Iwo Jima; Baghdad ain't Sh*t!"

[Fitzcarraldo]

``The Baghdad Division no longer exists, and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force is moving on,''

Almost sounds too easy...

[N. Theknow]

battle-hardened Republican Guard

Rigor mortis?

[elbucko]

It's amazing what our troops can accomplish...

Yes it is! Geeze, I'm so darn proud of these guys!

[Retrofire]

Oh my God!

Did anyone else notice that a wire report actually took a U.S. claim at face value and didn't caption it:

"US says "Republican Guard" unit "Routed."

DOHA QATAR - Sources told skeptical AP reporters today that the cruel and sadistic - Yet pathethic US forces reverse-retreating in a direction roughly toward the Iraqi capitol managed to inflict some small damage to unarmed supply convoys bringing caviar and crab cakes to the noble Republican Guard units around Karbala.

Initial reports from the field indicate that 25mm fire from a Bradley personnel carrier passed through a hospital, mosque, nunnery, daycare, and Starbucks before shrapnel embedded in the left asscheek of a defenseless child riding shotgun in a Red Crescent ambulance traveling with the Republican Guard supply convoy.

LCPL Hank McCoy of Kentucky shouted "Yeehawww" as he crushed an animal shelter where human shields were adopting pot-bellied pigs left homeless in the 1991 Gulf War. In the meantime, Captain Billy-Bob "Bocephus" Buttchuck distrubuted boxes of powdered depeleted uranium to children and explained to them how to inhale it in redneck-accented Arabic.

In other news, Marines chopped down old growth forest north of Najef, and spent a liesurely afternoon shooting spotted owls for target practice." /sarcasm

[Cyber Liberty]

Heh, heh, heh.....

Well done.

[tbpiper]

Just think what they'll be able to do when the 'pause' is over!

[Wright is right!]

JH@, one of Los Problemos the RG's have is that, in many cases, SadMan ordered the guys to dig their tanks in to make them harder to see. Unfortunately, it also makes them almost impossible to DRIVE, so - once seen - they're sitting ducks. This has already been reported by a lot of our troops moving in from the southwest. I would image that digging in also led, at least partially, to the demise of this one division.

Michael

[m1911]

LOL - nice one

[RonF]

Well, up to a certain point the RG wants to keep the bridges intact so that they can retreat. And by the time they realize that this is impossible, they may no longer have the capability to trigger the explosives. I read in one post that the U.S. is bombing around the bridges to break any wires that lead to the explosives. Apprently they aren't using wireless communications to trigger the explosives.

[JohnHuang2]

Bingo, my friend.

[m1911]

Hmmm. I hope so, but it is the most suspicious part of the Iraqi "dazzle 'em with stupidity" defensive scheme.