US vows 'to use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut'

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/19/1069027184869.html

Automatic weapon fire pounded from helicopter gunships, and dozens of rounds of air-launched cannon fire lit the dark on Tuesday night as the US military battled to root out insurgents in Baghdad.

The offensive, which included some of the strongest firepower used in Baghdad since major combat ended in May, was matched by a similar operation earlier in the day in Tikrit. They were part of military crackdowns in central Iraq, where anti-American insurgent activity has been strongest.

"This is war," Major-General Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, based in western Iraq, said during a briefing in Baghdad. "We're going to use a sledgehammer to crush a walnut. We're not going to prosecute this war holding one hand behind our back, we're going to use enough in our arsenal to win this fight."

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[54anickel]

1. Thought this was an occupation, err liberation thingy. Now it's WAR

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. Hmmm. I've heard this before....oh, yeah...Vietnam.

[Raenelle]

11. In VN, it was a sledgehammer to crush a ping-pong ball in a vat of water

So, you know, this is different, what with the walnut and all.

[Don_G]

3. Just Another Vietnam

Without the jungle.

[saigon68]

17. ITS IRAQ-NAM

Every day more and more like the original.

All the parallels are there.

A population that hates us.

Corporate criminals, out to make a killing at taxpayer expense.

A rich elitist class, looking for $$$ and Power (Chalabi)

A frustrated military ordered to do war crimies by ChickenHawks.

Yup, its all there.

[fshrink]

18. And probably a similar ending.

If it's not over now, it means that a significant proportion of the people is involved. From a military operation to topple a dictator it turns into a war against a people. And those are always lost. The profit, direct or indirect, obvious or covert, they generate in the mean time is another story...

[leesa]

4. Assholes. I hope Swannack is behind bars REAL soon. It's an illegal

immoral ivasion of a disarmed country you cowardly fool.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. What a great idea

let's just brutalize and terrorize the people we are spending billions on to liberate?

Has a side bonus, they get to destroy all that stuff that Brown & Root just built so they can build it again.

[LittleApple81]

7. Bingo!!!! n/t

[Barrett808]

14. Brown and Root made a killing selling choppers for Vietnam

Plus ca change...

[ixion]

6. just like the round the clock bombing of Cambodia...

and I'm sure it will be just as effective -- it will kill thousands and make no difference.


Thanks Monkey Boy, for starting a new Vietnam. :-(

[kayell]

8. Pity about the table the walnut is sitting on

We had to destroy the village to save it.

[Maeve]

9. Not to mention the mess it makes of the walnut

Powdered nut mixed with shell...fit only for the trash.

[izzie]

10. And the empty headed person holding the hammer.

n/t

[bushisanidiot]

12. So Is It Operation Sledgehammer or Operation Smashed Nuts?

I can't believe there isn't a comic book out yet about this administration. These "morans" can't think beyond comic book level catch phrases.

What a weak "president".

[parkia00]

13. The Resistance Has a Different Quote...

"The Pin That Broke The Camel's Back"

Guess who is the pin and who is the camel.........

I hear lots of tiny fire ant bites can cause an elephant to get uncomfortable.




You Are Not My President,
I Did Not Vote For You,
You Did Not Win The Election,
And You Sure As Hell Do Not Represent me.

[newyawker99]

26. Hi parkia00!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[gratuitous]

15. Nice metaphor, but here's one that more apt

They're going to get that annoying fly with a shotgun. Look out, kids! Dad's gonna git that sucker! <Blam!> Gimme a couple more shells! And put some plastic over that window.

[rman]

16. ah yes: overkill. very compasionate.

well at least it's a show of masculin verility or some such.

[LivingInTheBubble]

19. What bigger sign of ignorance does one need?

They dont even understand the phrase do they, lol.

[jokerman93]

20. Trent Lott is a brilliant strategist

I guess his suggested tactic of mowing them all down to see what happens, has made profound sense to Chimpy.

Now we're dropping satelite guided half/ton bombs on "suspected" terrorists, dead-enders, suiciders, and resisters who hate our freedoms.

Everyone must be a suspect now.

Yes Major-General, this is war. It's war against a civilian population of a country we came to steal.

[tex46]

21. When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail

-can't remember where I heard that, but it fits

[Q]

22. Seems like they don't give a shit...

...that they might be killing innocent civilians as they hunt for 'insurgents'.

[fshrink]

23. That's what we would need in the Presidential debate.

[NickB79]

24. This was in the local paper this morning

The accompanying picture showed a bomb detonating in THE MIDDLE OF AN EMPTY FIELD, and the caption stating how the US is hitting enemy strongholds!?!? What are they wasting our money on over there?

"Yes, we have succeeded in destroying the top-secret, invisible Iraqi terra-ist headquarters. Now we must bomb every other square inch of this country to make sure we get all the other ones, since they're so hard to find, being invisible and all."

[tom_paine]

25. Brilliant! That oughta win their hearts and minds!

[DivinBreuvage]

27. "The effect was spectacular..."

"Nearly every wooden building -- including acres of worker's settlements on the outskirts -- was burned down, and the flames made it possible to read a paper forty miles away. It was a pure terror raid, its purpose to kill as many civilians as possible, overload all the services, sow panic and demoralisation, to place a blazing pyre in the path of the retreating army -- the pattern of Warsaw, Rotterdam, Belgrade, and Kiev...."

"Yet the fact remains that while the Russians showed great skill and versatility in adapting their tactics as the battle wore on, Paulus mishandled it from the start. The Germans were baffled by a situation hitherto outside their military experience, and they reacted to it characteristically -- by the application of brute force in heavier and heavier doses."

(edited to add emphasis)

The Battle of Stalingrad, from Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict, 1941-45 by Alan Clark

Françoise

[neuvocat]

28. Maybe someone said this already

but I remember how the U.S. had all that firepower in Viet Nam and it didn't do any good.