Quit picking on having the high water vehicles in Iraq

[Ravenseye]

It just shows your ignorance.

The Louisiana National Guard should have all been home and able to help with this tragedy but they're not, and the people of Louisiana, and the other locations struck by the hurricane will have to make do without them thanks to Commander Cuckoobananas war.

Don't make comments about having high water vehicles in Iraq though. You show your ignorance. It's not all a desert folks. There are miles of endless wetlands and marshes amongst the rivers. There are plenty of locations that high water vehicles would be needed

Are they being used in those locations in Iraq? I don't know. Maybe they're just parked somewhere going to waste while people die in New Orleans, but it wasn't a mistake to take the high water vehicles there because it's "a desert". It's not all desert. I can't believe that after we've occupied a country for over 2 years people still think it's just sand dunes and dusty streets.

[Alpharetta]

1. Those high-water vehicles include Hummers?

Seems like a lot of troops fatalities in Iraq due to driving into water.

Those vehicles wouldn't help in New Orleans anyway.

[Ravenseye]

3. No

They have these specialized trucks that are huge, with massive wheels and snorkels...they can easily pass through water that would pass over your head. Good for marshes. Which they have a ton of in Iraq.

[Tesla]

2. You know, the floods they have this time of year.....

[Ravenseye]

6. Actually more springtime flooding

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12778

"The Tigris River winds its way from its birthplace in the mountains of eastern Turkey through Iraq to the Shatt al Arab and the Persian Gulf. Fed by mountain snow and rainfall, the river is prone to springtime flooding, and this year is no exception. On March 16, 2005, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the top image of floods along the Tigris River. The river, which cut a thin blue line across the Iraqi landscape on February 27, has swollen across its flood plain by March 16. The primary cause of these floods is heavy rainfall."

[alfredo]

4. they are being used as personnel carriers.

Just recently several soldiers died from an IED exploding under one. They don't have armor beneath the troop quarters.

[Ravenseye]

9. Yeah see that's a waste

if they're just using them as generic troop transport and not in high water situations, then it's just another example of how Commander Cuckoobananas war has hurt this country.

Still it doesn't excuse the ignorance of thinking all of Iraq is a desert. It's wrong that theyr'e over there, but not because of the terrain.

[alfredo]

14. I saw a soldier being interviewed after one of the Duck boats

got hit by an IED. It was in Baghdad. Behind him was one of the vehicles.

Yeah, a waste.

[AnnieBW]

5. What About Duck Boats?

You know, those boats that go on both land and water? Kerry arrived in Boston on one during the Dem National Convention last summer. Seems like you drive a bunch of them to your nearest Air National Guard base, drive it up the ramp of a C-130, and within a few hours, you're in NOLA.

[Ravenseye]

7. You know that's funny, but perfect

The duck boat tour fleets from around the country should descend on New Orleans and help out. They'd be perfect. If it's too shallow, they drive, if it's too deep, they float. Perfect.

[alfredo]

8. That's what they are using as

personnel carriers. They are death traps because there is not armor on the bottom.

[Ravenseye]

10. I think she meant the old ones

The world war 2 duck boats they use for toursty things in towns.

http://www.bostonducktours.com/

[alfredo]

16. The vehicles I saw on TV in Baghdad looked like a type

of duck boat. they looked a lot like the WWII ducks, updated.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/03/iraq.vehicle.ap/


Marines were in amphibious assault vehicle
Armor plating is lighter than heavier Army vehicles


Wednesday, August 3, 2005; Posted: 6:59 p.m. EDT (22:59 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Marines killed Wednesday in Iraq were patrolling desert terrain in a vehicle better suited for those famous Marine Corps beach landings, experts say.

The amphibious assault vehicle -- the Marine Corps' signature transport -- is designed to carry troops in water operations from ship to shore, then operate on the beach and inland.

"You could certainly question whether an amphibious vehicle is the most appropriate ... to be driving around in a desert," said John Pike, defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, a private think tank.


"It was not designed primarily to drive around in the desert hundreds of miles from the beach," he said. "If they had been riding in an Abrams (tank) this probably wouldn't have happened, but there's not enough Abrams to go around."

[daleo]

11. Those vehicles shouldn't be in Iraq

Nor should anything else. Imagine all of those resources half a world away, what they could be doing now. It shows the folly of squandering resources on a phony war more starkly than anything ever could.

[Ravenseye]

12. No Question.

My point exactly. It's that when you say they shouldn't be there because Iraq is a desert is wrong on two counts.

1) They shouldn't be there because WE shouldn't be there. <-period

2) It has nothing to do with the terrain because if you were going to go to Iraq you would NEED high water vehicles with all the marshland and seasonal flooding.

Saying that the vehicles shouldn't be there because 'Iraq is a desert' as was eluded in a few other threads, you confused the issue and show your ignorance about a country we should all be more familiar with by now.

[daleo]

13. I haven't commented on the matter, personally.

Other than the general case, that all of the equipment would be useful in the current emergency. I agree that Iraq has varied landforms, as you say, including vast marshlands.

[mikeytherat]

15. Well, they're using AAVs like Bradleys...

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/wood080405.html

Cost 14 their lives, this stupidity did.

Maybe the LNG's amphibious vehicles are being utilized properly; unfortunately, many are not.

mikey_the_rat