Posted on 11/15/2004 3:56:58 PM PST by Kaslin
Not hard to understand they abandoned their wounded, but liberals only see evil in the west. Somehow they cannot comprehend what we are really up against.
We never carpet bombed Hanoi. We should have, but we didn't. We should have done to Hanoi what the Allies did to Dresden in WW2. And the mining of Hai Phong harbor created a huge uproar in the press.
It widespread damage as I remember the documentary. We may have been able to hone in on radar, but large sections of the city were hit.
Take No Prisoners! Kill them all. What the hell are you going to do with them after the war? Let them go so they can return to committing acts of terrorism like the prisoners released from Gitmo are doing?
The "Arab World" can feign outrage all they want. They have nothing to pe proud of in their treatment of human beings, their own or their enemies.
http://members.aol.com/dpoole1272/home/day1.htm
Operation LINEBACKER II began on December 18, 1972, 3,000 sorties, 11 days, and 40,000 tons of bombs penetrated the most concentrated air defense of the war. President Richard Nixon had turned complete control of the Vietnam war over to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Thomas Moorer on December 14, 1972 with orders "to win this war". As a result of this order Operation LINEBACKER II was executed. Eleven days after the B-52's began this operation, America's involvment in Vietnam was over. Peace talks that had came to a stale mate in October 1972 were resumed on January 8, 1973. Within 30 days after the final bomb was dropped Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger reached a final agreement and signed the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973. Within 60 days after the signing 591 American Prisoner's of War were released and returned to the United States.
Before the eleven day bombing campaign was over 26 US aircraft would be shot down by North Vietnam's SA-2 Guideline SAMmissiles. Fifteen of these aircraft were Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses. Thirty-one of the B-52 crewmembers shot down were captured and held as POWs. At the end of the eleven day mission, ninty-three were listed as Missing In Action.Today all but nine of those B-52 men listed as MIA have been returned home.
It took one hour and forty-three minutes for 87 B-52's to taxi, take-off, and become airborne on the afternoon of December 18, 1972 from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. Later they would be joined by 42 additional B-52 that departed from U-Tapao Royal Thai Airfield near Sattihip, Thailand. Together they would form three attacking waves making this the largest armada of bombers assembled since World War II. Seven targets had carefully been selected for the 129 B-52's concentrate their weapons on. The B-52D's from U-Tapao carried 108, 750-lb bombs. The B-52D's from Andersen AFB were loaded with 66 bombs and the B-52G's also from Andersen transported 27 bombs. Targets for the first sorties were the Hoa Lac Airfield, Kep Airfield, Phuc Yen Airfield, Kinh No vehicle repair facility, Yen Vien railroad yards, the Hanoi railroad repair facility, and the Hanoi Radio station. Of the 129 B-52s the bombs from 127 of them reached their intended targets. Two B-52's in the first wave, AQUA 02 and RED 03, both B-52G's had problems that prevented them from dropping their ordnance.
40,000 tons! I see your point in that it looks like industrial targets were hit.l
But I would like to 'not carpet bomb Fallujah' in the same way.
The media is sick. They hate this country so much. The fact the American people haven't put them out of business is beyond me.
We decide.
I do not trust the Obsolete Media.
...and you want me to believe the "fabricated" news of NBC?
Remember the Chevy gas tank set up? Ha!
You have a long way to walk NBC, since you lost my trust as a reputable News organization.
Go back to the fifty's era, when REAL Journalism meant something. You just might, just might learn something, about journalism integrity.
I decide to not watch that girlie man shep.
Good evening.
"What could he have been thinking?"
He was probably thinking that he didn't want to get wounded again. This enemy likes to take you with him and this guy knew that.
The only thing he did wrong was doing it in front of a reporter. Good luck to him.
Michael Frazier
EXACTLY- What is this crap??? If the enemy does not engage in warfare via Geneva Conventions, we don't either! How hard can it be?? Now one can expect one-sided rules of war, stupid MSM dem-lib-kerry-dnc people. Makes me sick.
You know what I think, Sites and his Islamist camera crew should've taken it upon themselves to save the wounded terrorists.
I sincerely hope our boys leave Sites to the mercy of the terrorists.
I'd drop him off in the middle of the Sunni triangle with a "Screw Mohammed" sign. Sites sucks.
I read Post 431 by Steel Wolf and what he says is that the ROE state you can not use lethal force unless you feel threatened.
Steel Wolf also brings up the point that the so-called "detainee" had "been laying wounded in the same spot for 24 hours".
With all due respect, that is the ultimate in Monday Morning Quarterbacking with the aid of the Internet and, yet, even with that advantage, he still has his facts screwed up.
By researching other threads on the incident, I have found out that another Marine squad had cleared out the mosque first. The NBC reporter was with that first unit.
Later, insurgents reoccupied the mosque. The mosque then had to be cleared out again by Marines with no knowledge of what had happened there 24 hours before.
The second squad of Marines had never set foot in that mosque before. Only the NBC reporter had been in that mosque before and only the NBC reporter knew the whole story.
Ever since Afghanistan, the terrorists had been using suicide fake surrenders to kill their captors.
That tactic continued in Iraq as I documented in Post 156
Iraqis fake surrender, kill Marines
Even the NBC reporter finished his initial report by saying that, a block away, a Marine had been killed by a fake surrender.
So, this one young Marine, after several days of continuous combat, comes into this mosque, for the first time in his life, sees this insurgent playing possum and he has to know, in a split second, that Steel Wolf has made an Internet search that documented that this insurgent had been there for 24 hours?
Why the hell didn't the NBC reporter say something?
Only after the shooting did the NBC reporter tell the Marine that the Iraqi had been wounded 24 hours before and the Marine replied, "I'm sorry, Sir. I did not know that."
How, exactly, was this Marine supposed to know that this insurgent did not have a suicide explosive device on him and not about to blow himself, the Marine and his squad to Kingdom Come?
The suicide fake surrender deaths have not come from allowing a prisoner to "point" an AK-47. Anyone who falls for that is too stupid to live. The suicide fake surrender deaths have come from explosive devices just as in World War II.
How was this Marine supposed to know that this man was not going denote a suicide explosive jacket in the next two seconds?
If Steel Wolf, with the full resources of the Internet available to him from the safety of his own home and with hours to research the matter can not get the facts straight that this second squad of Marines had never been in that mosque before, how do you expect that battle-exhausted Marine to know, in a split second decision, that that man had been wounded 24 hours before?
How?
Yes, with enough time and enough Internet research, I can come up with every last detail of this incident and tell you exactly what would have been the best course of action for the Marine to follow knowing what I know after that research.
The fact remains, however, that that Marine had to make a split second decision, with no information about that man in a situation exactly like other situations that had killed other Marines.
In such split second decisions, sometimes everyone ends up alive, sometimes the terrorist ends up dead and sometimes the terrorist and American troops all end up dead.
Fog of War kills.
In this case, I am glad it did not kill our Marines as it has often done in the past.
And if we are to believe Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" series, things exactly like this happened in WWII.
God bless you. Vindicated.
If there is a crime, it is the NBC reporter, since if he told the marine about the prisoner sit, the prisoner might have lived.
Sick.
Operation LINEBACKER II which had begun on December 18, 1972, had flown over 3,000 sorties in 11 days and dropped nearly 40,000 tons of bombs on a handful of targets scattered in and around the Hanoi and Haiphong area of North Vietnam was nearing completion. December 29, 1972 was the final evening for B-52s to bomb North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Eleven days after the bomber crews had begun this operation America's involvment with the B-52s over North Vietnam was finished. Their mission had been sucessful in obtaining their objective. Peace talks in Paris which had came to a stale mate in October 1972 were resumed on January 8, 1973. In less than 30 days after the final bombs were released from the B-52s Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger reached a final agreement to end the hostilities between the two nations and obtain the release of America's Prisoners of War. Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger signed the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973. Within 60 days after the signing 591 American Prisoner's of War were released and returned to the United States.
The eleven day bombing campaign was costly for the United States. By the end of the operation over 26 US aircraft had been shot down by North Vietnam's SA-2 Guideline SAMmissiles. Fifteen of these aircraft were Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses. In 1972 the B-52s were valued at over $8 million dollars each. Thirty-one of the B-52 crewmembers shot down were captured and held as POWs. At the end of the eleven day mission, ninty-three were listed as Missing In Action.Today all but nine of those B-52 men listed as MIA have been returned home. The remains of two of these nine have recently been recovered from a crash site just south of Hanoi. As soon as final identification is confirmed they too will be heading home.
If I understand correctly, just the day before a "dead" terri blew himself up and killed a marine in this same squad. This guy might have saved the lives of the entire squad.
BTTT for our great Marines!
I fault the company commander for allowing a distraction to ride along when his troops are in a combat situation. His obligation is to accomplish the mission and tend to the safety of his unit. Allowing a distraction a taxi ride demonstrates to me a dereliction of duty.
Never would happen on my watch.
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