US paratroopers deploy in Baghdad

[cal04]

MORE than 3000 US paratroopers have landed in Baghdad to help quell raging sectarian violence, the military announced today, after US losses surged with 19 troops killed in a helicopter crash, a gunbattle and bomb attacks.

On the political front, MPs who back radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said they were ending a nearly two-month-old parliamentary boycott, a move that could help shore up beleaguered Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.


(snip)
The US military said the 3,200 paratroopers, in Baghdad as part of the new security plan announced by US President George W. Bush, will be fully operational on or about February 1.

"The effort represents the first of several planned troop movements that will assist Iraqi security forces in reducing violence and protecting Iraqi citizens," it said.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/070121/19/1257a.html

[cornermouse]

1. Paratroopers in an urban area?

Sounds like a cover story to me.

[tabasco]

3. Just another infantry battalion.

Airborne infantry battalions don't just sit around waiting for a battle where they need an airborne operation. They get used like all the other infantry units in the military.

[Botany]

5. 82 nd airborne .... i bet

Some of our very best and our "ready reserve" which means if anything
flares up around the world we are screwed.

Like em or not our military leaders and planners have some smart
people and they were 100% opposed to this nonsense which will not
change the situation in Baghdad @ all .....

how the hell does bush sleep?

[tabasco]

7. I'm proud of the Army because they have fought the neocons

harder than any other branch. The problem is the corrupt cabal has promoted unqualified senior officers because of loyalty (yes-men). But there are still many good officers who oppose these dirty rotten neocons.

[Botany]

9. Bush reminds me more and more of Hitler not listening to his Generals ....

.... and when the Joint Chiefs of Staff disagree he looks for any Sr.
officer that will agree just like Hitler did on the Russian front.

"Retreat from Stalingrad is our only good option." German High Command

"Oh leave the troops in Stalingrad and I can resupply them by air drops."
1 Luftewaffe Col.

Hitler not only split his armies in Russia but left his 6th Army in Stalingrad
where the air drops failed and he lost over 250,000 soldiers.

Having bush command military operations is like tellings a 4th grader that
you want a paper on high energy physics.

[rodeodance]

10. McCain BLAMED Casy on MTP (sun.)--said 'some knew from the beginning

that it was a failed policy_

[strizi64]

8. with the right medication

it's no problem to sleep, even if your house is burning down to the ground around you..... send this madman to hell

IMPEACH BUSH

[PurityOfEssence]

6. Actually, that's a good paradigm

Paratroopers are trained to be surrounded and be in truly unfriendly hot spots. That's what urban warfare's all about, so that's a good match.

This will get very ugly.

Conservatives are supposed to be in love with the past and trying to take us back there. Why don't they know anything about history? This kind of subjugation has never worked, and they're trying to do it in a HUGE city with entrenched interest groups and flimsy and vulnerable logistics.


So very sad.

[peace13]

2. Of all of the things that they never tell us about,,

why divulge the battle plan as it unfolds. Once again they are aiding the enemy! I feel so terrible for the troops and their families, and I can't imagine being an Iraqi. When will it end!

[Xipe Totec]

4. "assist Iraqi security forces in reducing violence"

By shooting indiscriminately?

That does not sound like a good plan to me.

[Name removed]

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