Did We Do This In Vietnam? U.S. Troops Build Wall of Sand Around a City!

[leftchick]

Or Perhaps this is more Nazi-like activity....


U.S. Troops Build Wall of Sand in Iraq



A bulldozer pushes sand to form a wall surrounding the city of Siniyah, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Army units operating in the area believe the village had become a staging point for insurgents to attack coalition forces. (AP Photo/Ryan Lenz)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060107/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_wall_of_sand_1

SINIYAH, Iraq - Villagers watched from rooftops as U.S. military bulldozers heaved a wall of sand into snaking lines around their homes Saturday in an attempt to trap insurgents believed to be hiding among them.

The drastic tactic in Siniyah came after weeks of increasingly bold insurgent attacks, including almost daily roadside bombs targeting 101st Airborne Division soldiers patrolling the village, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

"This is not in any of the courses they teach in the Army," said Maj. Shawn Daniel, who oversees operations for the 3rd Brigade's 33rd Cavalry Regiment. "But if bad people are coming to Siniyah to attack coalition forces, let's catch them at the gate."

Spanning six miles and broken by watchtowers to be manned by Iraqi security forces, the 10-foot tall crude barrier is the Army's latest tool to rout out insurgents.

Construction was expected to last several days. Once complete, all vehicles leaving or entering the village will be stopped as soldiers look for known insurgents, bomb-making materials and illegal weapons.

[jody]

1. Isn't Israel building a wall for the same purpose? In Vietnam it was the

"McNamara Line", an electronic wall around South Vietnam to remotely track the movement of supplies. This effort was given the code name Igloo White.

[Oversea Visitor]

2. Oh yeah

This good PR
If you need to do this you fuck.

[leftchick]

4. we are fucked all right

totally. :(

[sweetheart]

11. its sand

This whole war is a tragedy, but i can't get all that worked up
about some sand piles.

The army is in a no-win situation, and whatever they do to stay
alive is their dharma.

[Oversea Visitor]

12. To you it is sand

To the Iraqies it is oppression
Lost of Freedom
Lost of Liberty
Treated like prisoner

That is the worst strategy US can ever do.
This is desparate strategy

Looks like the BIG KABOOM is near.

[leftchick]

14. Big Kaboom is right!

It is only a matter of time. The US is alienating more Iraqis every day with fascist tactics like this. It is just a sophisticated game of whack a mole that does nothing for the US and oppresses, humiliates and kills innocent Iraqis.

[sweetheart]

15. agree

Then we should withdraw and GTFO.

But for the time there, i view shooting
civilians, illigal imprisonment and human abuse
as the core problems. If those soldiers spent
all their days plowing sand and not killing
people, we'd not be in this conundrum.

The only big kaboom looming is the pffft sound
of the US economy letting out air, leveraged
to the hilt so that the cutting edge of political
society can make sandcastles in asian deserts.

[acmavm]

3. They showed their desperation in other ways. But generally it comes

down to killing the innocent. And its so hard to sort the innocent from the guilty since we had/have no business to be in either country.

[NNN0LHI]

5. We put Indians on to reservations too. Many are still there n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. They had "fortified villages" in Vietnam. Same thing in reverse.

Supposedly "loyal" villages were surrounded with fences and watchtowers and locals hired to fight the VC. That failed, so they just bombed everything and everybody. Much like they're planning to do now when "hand over security" to the Iraqis.

[leftchick]

8. I thought it had a familiar ring to it.

God, will we ever learn? :(

[phillysuse]

16. Strategic hamlets

is what the fenced in villages were called in VietNam.

Pretty soon, we will have to destroy the village to save it here too.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Quite right - the name escaped me.

When I was in the marines in the early '60s they showed us some films of smiling villagers being trained by GI's to fight the "enemy".

[Cocoa]

7. I hope this was approved

by the sovereign Iraqi government.

[Oversea Visitor]

9. I dont think they got a say

[Surya Gayatri]

10. Clutching at straws

or "sand", trying to stem the tide of rising turmoil. Like the great sandstone monument in Shelley's "Ozymandious", this too will disintegrate into dust. SG

[spanone]

13. Operational tactics when your enemy is in it's LAST THROES.