U.S. Marines Poised to Storm Falluja and Ramadi

[Rose Siding]

NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. marines prepared on Friday to storm the Iraqi cities of Falluja and Ramadi to crush Sunni Muslim insurgents and Arab fighters.

"We are gearing up for a major operation," Brigadier General Denis Hajlik told reporters at a base near Falluja. "If we do so, it will be decisive and we will whack them."

Hajlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the expected assault would involve Iraqi forces.

Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government has vowed to pacify the whole country before nationwide elections due in January.

U.S. planes have launched almost daily air strikes on what the military says are safe houses used by a network of Iraqi and foreign fighters led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

But a full-scale U.S.-led attack could be as devastating as a marine offensive in April that Washington called off after a world outcry over civilian casualties in Falluja. Local doctors reported more than 600 dead in the fighting.

http://tinyurl.com/6ha63

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. To begin about 10am ET Sunday so we can all watch the

shock and awe as we walk into the voting booth on Tuesday.

[saigon68]

46. Hope they don't forget the body bags

lots of gold star mothers next week

[Beetwasher]

2. Hey Rove, You Can't Wag A Dog That Done Already Been Wagged!

You moron...

[phantom power]

3. By all means, keep reminding Americans that the war is out of control

[rsmith6621]

4. Bush Is Desperate

For a POSITIVE HEADLINE this last 3 days before the election.....Jeez....its not like they havent been able to do it at another time.......

Their DESPERATE!!!!..........For the sake of the Soldiers I hope it doesnt blow up in the Prezes face but I hope that people can see right through this as nothing more than a attempt to save their A$$es.

[louis-t]

5. "Hey, look, shrub just killed thousands of people...

...let's vote for HIM!" He really believes this will work. Delusional.

[neomonkey]

6. George W. Bush, you and your circle

are the most despicable bunch to walk the floors of the White House in this history of this country. You use our soldiers as pawns, you'll stop at nothing to get another 4 years. You make me sicker than I can describe.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

7. Simply Murder...

This administration doesn't care how many of our kids get killed, and they care even less about how many innocent Iraqi's get killed. Winning this election is the be-all and end-all. They are committing murder for votes. Simply murder.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jimshoes]

12. Would you feel the same way

if it were Kerry about to do the same thing? Please be honest.

[catmandu57]

13. YES, YES WE DO

After 1111 known American deaths, thousands of casualties, lie after fucking lie we don't trust this desperate son of a striking ugly bitch any further than he can be thrown.

[NeoConsSuck]

14. Enjoy your short stay...

[mrbassman03]

17. Go ahead and let the door hit you on the way out...

[Barrett808]

23. Countdown to tombstone... n/t

[neomonkey]

25. Can you explain the timing and the flagrant public announcement?

This is a military operation for chrissakes. What advantage is to be gained by telling the world our troops are "poised" to attack these 2 cities other than this mis-Administration's chances for re-election because there will be sheople who are impressed by this swagger?

[seemslikeadream]

28. Absolutly!

At least I do.

[Tempest]

8. Corrected link

http://tinyurl.com/5faft

[Rose Siding]

11. Thank you

[Az_lefty]

9. Boy George still trying to prove he's a tuff guy......

[TNOE]

15. I think it will be a slaughter

they pulled backed before because US soldiers were getting their asses kicked and they didn't want a high number of US casualties during "the election season" - so now it doesn't matter, especially if he looses, what the hell, send them in and let the chips fall where they may. My sister's bestfriend's kid is over there, I suspect he won't be coming home, alive anyway.

[ElectroPrincess]

34. Urban Warfare is Messy ...

I'm not attempting to be glib. Both my brother and father in Vietnam and Italy (WWII) say that house to house fighting is a nightmare. Waiting and hoping random artillery doesn't kill you - may drive you crazy in a foxhole, but actively invading a city will kill almost as many coalition forces as insurgents/suspected terrorists. However, civilians will take the greatest casualties because combat is an equal opportunity destroyer.

Yes, I think this is the present Administrations "siren song." Like the Neo-Cons, some former Active Duty, failed to study their Military Science History, an full-out attack on Falluja will be nothing less than a blood bath for all present.

[happyslug]

16. Full moon was last night.

From a Full Moon point of view the situation is changing, you had a Lunar Eclipse two nights ago and a full moon last night. Today the Moon will raise just after Noon and peak about 11:00 pm. The moon rose just after night fall and sat just after Dawn. For the nest week the moon will rise and set later and later, providing full moon light only till right after Midnight.

Night vision goggles work great in areas where you have some light but if you have NO light Night Vision Goggles tend to fail. What I mean by "fail" is NOT that the device is NOT working but when it comes to ground operations you tend to lose areas (Such as Ditches) where no light is entering. The Ground may look flat but it is not for the lack of any light is hiding the ditches, runts, etc

IT is for this reason that even today the Army prefers to operate with Moon light if it has to operate at night. Now the Air Force is not so limited, it does not have to worry about Ditches in the Combat Area but the ground pounders do.

This is compounded by Ramadan. Ramadan is a lunar month going from one new moon to the next. Attacking at the next new moon will have less affect than an attack during Ramadan.

Thus I do not see the Marines waiting till the New Moon do to the lack of light, and an attack doing the next full moon will have less effect for Ramadan would be over. Thus something in the next week or so.


To find Sun and Moon rise/set see:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html

For latitude and Longitude for a city see:
http://gnswww.nima.mil/geonames/Gazetteer/Search/GazFrame.jsp

Baghdad is:
33 degree, 20 Minutes, 19 Second North and
44 Degree, 23 Minutes, 38 Seconds East.
3 hours East of GMT

Fullajab position is:
33 Degree, 21 Minutes, 22 Seconds North
43 Degree, 46 Minutes, 58 Seconds East

[Demeter]

18. Why In God's Name Are We Permitting This Outrage?

Is there no integrity in this country anymore?

[Q]

19. Republicans say they value life...

...but have nothing to say about the thousands of innocent men, women and CHILDREN Bush's* bombs are killing in Iraq.

- The Right should start thinking of them as human beings instead of 'collatoral damage'. These bastards don't care who gets in the way of their bombs as they hope to kill a handful of 'suspected' terrorists.

[Gregorian]

20. STOP KILLING IRAQIS!!!

We should all be in the streets right now, protesting the killing of every single Iraqi killed. This is an outrage. It's a crime against humanity! We just went to their country and started killing them.

What can I do besides demand that they stop? STOP NOW!

[tres_bohemienne]

21. How will this affect the election?

If there is a major offensive, do you think it would work FOR or AGAINST Bush? On the one hand, people don't like to switch Presidents in the middle of a war, but on the other hand, if that war is a complete disaster, then maybe they would?

I can't decide whether it will have an impact or not.

What do you think?

www.stopthecrap.org

[Bridget Burke]

22. My first thought is not for the election.

It's for the soldiers & civilians who are about to die.

Of course, the bastards that planned this are thinking about the election.

[AndyTiedye]

37. When You Realize that Your "Horse" is really a CROCODILE - CHANGE HORSES!

[sr_pacifica]

47. It isn't going to happen until AFTER the election

So the bloodshed won't hurt Bush's chance for reelection.

[Barrett808]

24. Of course, they can take Fallujah and Ramadi...

...but they can't hold either one.

[geniph]

30. They only need to hold them until Tuesday

From their point of view, anything that happens after Tuesday doesn't matter. This is nothing but a last-ditch attempt to convince America that we're in control and Iraq is a "good" war. All they care about is riding to electoral victory on the graves of our soldiers.

Support the troops, my ass. I wonder how many hundreds of our soldiers will be dead by Tuesday morning?

[Barrett808]

35. Probably not hundreds of US dead

I suspect the insurgency will cede Fallujah and Ramadi, as they did Yusufiyeh. We'll take mostly-empty cities, declare victory, then withdraw to shore up the rear, which will be under heavy attack. The insurgency will slip back in and start where they left off.

[catmandu57]

26. The Iraqis there must have learned

from the first time we tried this. They might have a few very nasty suprises lying in wait, I don't see how this could help the chimp*.

[DemocracyInaction]

27. Report today: 100,000 Iraqis have been killed so far in this war and

a good many of them are women and children. And we still haven't won shit. Yep, let's blow another 100,000 of them into DEE-MOCK-RAH-SEE. We are the laughing stock of the world and rightfully hated. We made a mess and the only thing this administration knows how to do is blow some more up. Yep, that will help. Always does. Makes them know we are tough and then they don't fight us. Sure....has worked like a peach so far hasn't it??? Let's get the whole ME fighting and rioting and then kiss kiss the oil supplies goodbye and then kiss kiss our economy goodbye................eventually we are going to pay for this asshole we allowed into the Oval Office and it isn't going to be pretty.

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

32. Pay back is a bitch

Too bad we're due. Safer my ass. When the chickens come home to roost we'll be paying for this evil insanity.

[LongTomH]

41. 100,00 figure may be conservative

The researchers who arrived at the 100,000 figure based that on surveys done in a few selected areas. They admitted that they didn't venture into areas of heavy fighting like Fallujah, where casualties are bound to be higher.

God have mercy on us all!

[Sinnerman]

29. Welcome to the world of Smoke and Mirors

[fryguy]

31. wag the dog

a new offensive right before the election - who would have guessed it

[Wilber_Stool]

33. 10 am Sunday

Just in time for Church.

[VegasWolf]

36. More MURDER! eom

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[catmandu57]

38. Some of the missing explosives may show up

when they attempt this, it may be the chimp's* swan song as well. If that's the case, it'll just pile on more evidence when he's hauled before the court.

[Sara Beverley]

39. Just going to kill more innocent Iraqi and turn the rest against us.

There is nothing that this administration will not do to try to win this election no matter how many lives of others it will cost.
This is to divert attention from the failed attempt to account for the missing explosives. That press conference was embarrassing to the entire military and speaks volumes as to how far the Bush regime will go to escape any responsibility for anything. Any true conservative or true Christian after today's press conference which was a poor attempt to cover up another lie, should just stay home or vote for Kerry. How can you folks vote for this lying, murdering,cheating, thieving, band of heathens?

[TheKingfish]

40. Is it smart military strategy ?

To announce your offensives? Just because the Iraqi resistance is fighting the US doesn't make them idiots.

[happyslug]

42. Yes, and they will see the buildup, so why deny that you will attack?

One's opposition is rarely stupid, thus you can see a build up of troops and supplies, the opposition can generally guess an attack is coming. Increase reconnaissance is an another sure sign of an attack. Thus most attacks are know to one's enemies while before the attack begins. Thus there is rarely any reason to hide the fact one is about to attack.

What you do need to keep secret is when, where, how and with what forces. Do you attack from the north, the south, the east the west (or helicopter into the middle of town)? Do you attack with a full moon, dawn, dusk or in the middle of the afternoon? (Sam Houston's attack in the battle of San Jaciato was in the Afternoon for he saw that Santa Anna's Army took their siesta then and thus the least prepared to withstand an attack. My Point is even a day time attack may be to your advantage).

In Grant's First battle of the Civil War his men panic as the Rebels stormed out of their fort. His men thought it was a full blown attack to drive them away from the rebel fort. Grant than pointed out to his men that the Rebels were carrying FULL PACKS. It was not an attack (You do not attack with full packs for after the attack you can recover the packs), but a break out (You will need the pack soon but can NOT go back to them). This fact rallied his men and he forces the rebels back into their fort and later took the fort. My point was once the attack took place it was no longer a secret and once Grant's men spotted the packs, the fact it was a breakout was also no longer a secret.

Another Example is when my Father's unit was issued "Engineering" Equipment for D-Day. He was the Second Wave on Omaha. His unit had trained to be First wave but lost the coin flip and became Second Wave. At Omaha, Equipment for the Combat Engineers had to get on shore with the firs wave of the attack, the only way to get it onshore was for the attacking infantry to carry on shore with them (and than dropped it off on the beach for the Combat engineers to recover and use). He learn there was trouble on Omaha when his unit was given the Engineering Equipment to carry onshore. That was first wave job not second wave. When his unit was issued Engineer Equipment to carry onshore he knew things had gone wrong, how bad he and his fellow dog face infantry did not know, but they knew it was bad without even seeing the battlefield. Furthermore at that point any attack would have to follow the first Wave and even the Germans knew it by then.

Thus the key is NOT to keep the idea that you plan to attack a secret, but HOW, WHEN, WHERE and with what forces you plan to do the attack must be kept secret. Even some of these you may not have to keep secret if do to the nature of the mission will reveal them to the enemy while before the attack. For example do to the nature of the terrain you may be only able to attack in one area, why keep how you plan to attack if you HAVE to attack in only one way? For example in the plan invasion of Japan the beaches available to land Forces where restricted. Even the Japanese guessed which beeches we would land on (and were building up their Defenses). How, when and with what forces could be kept secret, but not Where. Even the forces could be guessed since we had to use Okinawa as a base and thus what forces where on Okinawa would be the forces used to attack Japan (These unpleasant facts and the Russian invasion of Manchuria forced the US to Accept protection for the Emperor as a condition of Japan's Surrender in 1945).

You may even what to reveal HOW, WHEN and WHERE you plan to attack to show the enemy how much power you possess. A Japanese business once reported he knew Japan had lost the war when an American B-29 dropped leaflets telling his town they were to be bombed the next day, and than the town was bombed right on Scheduled. It showed the Businessman HOW much power the US had over Japan, that we did NOT fear the Japanese Air Defense System. This Psychological advantage is important. If you can cause the other side to panic and leave the Battlefield based on the appearance that your forces will win no matter what the enemy does, than showing the enemy your plans is to your advantage not disadvantage.

My point here is history has shown that you should only keep things secret that you can keep secret and is to your advantage to keep secret. Do NOT waste your time keeping things secret that people will find out anyway OR is to your advantage to leave the enemy know.

[JSJ]

43. doing war crimes and atrocities make 'the troops' 'all they can be'

[maddezmom]

44. kick,

[killbotfactory]

45. OPERATION CYA about to commence

[w4rma]

48. He's using the soldiers as political props. Omg. (nt)

[NNN0LHI]

49. Haven't the Marines been poised to storm Falluja and Ramadi for...

...a couple of months now? What happened to the deal Bush made with the insurgents to stop shooting last month? That get called off or something? Hows the gun buy back program going lately?

Don

[mom cat]

50. Bloodbath for Bush!

[Darranar]

51. Absolutely nothing to do with the election, of course...

Nothing political involved in this at all, purely for military purposes.

Sarcasm off, I think the slaughter will either start right before the election (to instill within us all a deep sense of "patriotism", that is, blind allegiance to the leader ordering the massacres) or right after, to prevent any possible mess-ups or any revelations about the level of destruction from interfering with Bush's chances.

[dave502d]

52. This should not happen.

[Darranar]

53. Falluja hit as town braces for US assault

Four Iraqis were killed and six injured in US air raids on the Al-Askary neighborhood, east of Falluja on Friday as the town braced for an US assault on it.

The US marines announced they were in preparations for a "decisive" assault on Falluja and the city of Ramadi even as the country's interim prime minister issued another ultimatum to the town's residents.

In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, fierce clashes erupted between Iraqi fighters and US troops at the eastern entrance of the city. Medical sources in Ramadi hospital said two women were injured in the clashes.

Prior to the clashes, three mortar rounds fell on the US military camp in the area, and heavy smoke was seen over the camp.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/315083A8-987C-4FFF-A924-0703DFDF259F.htm