There was a thread a few days ago regarding troops wanting to go on foot

[frogcycle]

because the humvees are such "high value targets" for the IEDs. Someody remarked that then they'll just get shot..

http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/8171712.html

Maize Soldier Killed in Iraq
Posted: 3:33 PM Jun 25, 2007


An Army soldier from Maize was killed by small arms fire in Iraq last week. Eric Palmer was better known as "Eeker" by his family and friends from high school.

After graduating from Maize in 2004, he went on to join the Army.

He was serving his time in Iraq, when on Thursday night, his family got the dreaded call. Palmer was on foot patrol when his unit came under fire - Palmer was shot in the head.

He was stabilized on the scene then flown to Germany and put on life support, but died over the weekend.

...

[Javaman]

1. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. life in iraq. nt

[Drifter]

2. It is kind of like ...

not crossing a bridge all at once.

Cheers
Drifter

[frogcycle]

6. yes, this was one

if he'd been in a humvee with 3-4 others, it might be 4-5

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11057

so the foot patrols may still have advantages. but staying the fuck away would be even better. All the body armor and helmets and shit do nothing when there is a well-armed sharpshooter just licking his chops waiting for targets.

[babylonsister]

3. I remember that thread, and yes, this was predicted.

:argh: :argh: :-(

[frogcycle]

4. i don't know what they hell they actually accomplish

in these patrols, whether mounted or dismounted. But the local populace is harboring people who use our troops for target practice. They have factories to perfect IEDs, they have sharpshooters, they have an entire enterprise designed to kill US troops.

This is just not acceptable. Of course we don't actually know what the real news is, since it is all filtered and censored. It actually COULD be that these patrols accomplish something for the 20 million or so Iraqis who are the victims of, not the perpetrators of this carnage. I tend to feel it is futile - that they go out, get shot at, go home, and do it again tomorrow. But maybe i am cynical. Maybe there IS some value to what they are doing. But if there IS, then they are HEROES to those Iraqi citizens, and they should be getting tipped off right and left as to where the bad guys are. The bad guys could not exist within a society unless there were tacit approval.

So screw it. Whatever the bloody chaos that might ensue when we leave, at this point I feel like they are all asking for it. OK, I am not that hard-hearted; millions of innocent civilians are cowering in fear, their lives turned upside down, and are too scared to do or say anything. I get that. That the United States put them in that position is a travesty; is criminal. On an individual basis, I care deeply for their agony. But the big picture is what it is. they have to collectively, as a people, get off their asses and roust out these so-called "foreign fighters" as well as the home-grown insurgents. And if they do, they can direct Iraqi soldiers to go get them as readily as they can American soldiers. They don't know what government "of the people" is (we are fast losing memory of that as well). It is not just the inept so-called government that needs to "step up." Clearly it is toothless and cannot control the masses. The masses need to decide to take matters in their own hands. They need local community groups - tribal groups, maintaining some sort of uneasy truce. That's the way "government" has worked in that region for thousands of years. The first step toward that is TAKE AWAY THE SITTING DUCK AMERICAN TARGETS! Then let the local gangs, tribes, militias stake out territory and defend it.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. I posted one thread on that subject. Oh, my God. Here's the link.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1158097

LAT: Explosives make WALKING safer for U.S. troops than riding in armored vehicles
Explosives make walking safer than riding in tanks
By Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writer
June 21, 2007

BAGHDAD -- U.S. soldiers working the streets of the capital fear one Iraqi weapon more than others -- copper-plated explosives that can penetrate armor and have proven devastating to Humvees and are even capable of severely damaging tanks.

The power of what the military calls EFPs, for explosively formed penetrators or projectiles, to spray molten metal balls that punch through the armor on vehicles has some American soldiers rethinking their tactics. Some are asking if the U.S. should to give up its reliance on constant improvements to vehicle defenses.

Instead, some soldiers think, it is time to leave the armor behind and get out and walk.

"In our area, the biggest threat for us is EFPs. When you are in the vehicles, you are a big target," said Staff Sgt. Cavin Moskwa, 33, of Hawaii, who patrols the Zaphraniya neighborhood with the Bravo battery of the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery. "But when you are dismounted ... you are a lot safer."

In the last three days, 15 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, nine of them in two powerful roadside bomb blasts. The military does not release the kind of weapon used in improvised explosive attacks, but the deadly nature of the two attacks suggests EFPs possibly were used in both....