[Polybius]

I watched the Umm Qasr battle. We played around with them for 4 hours when we should have had a big freaking bomb dropped right through the chimney of those two buildings. But did not because we want to avoid destroying "infrastructure".

That was not a "battle". That was a minor firefight in the large scheme of things.

In regards to "avoid destroying infrastructure", where did you hear that? The tanks were firing into that building and the infatry was rocketing the building.

The only reason we are even talking about that firefight is because an "embedded" journalist with a sattelite camera happened to give us four hours of live coast-to-coast coverage of it and it therefore monopolized last night's war coverage.

Airpower is not an unlimited resource and those Iraqis were moving from place to place. If you call in for an airstrike every time an Iraqi squad fires at you from a building anywhere in Iraq, there won't be much airpower left for the more critical targets.

[Arkinsaw]

If you call in for an airstrike every time an Iraqi squad fires at you from a building anywhere in Iraq

My understanding is that it was a Republican Guard company of about 120. We had three main battle tanks dealing with them for four hours. A Marine company was basically lying low watching during that time. A convoy was at a standstill along the road and almost got dragged into it.

Seems to me like it would be much more efficient to flatten the buildings with either artillery or an airstrike.