Ramadi Insurgents Develop Clever Tactics

[NNN0LHI]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/04/09/international/i133438D31.DTL

On an eerie, battle-scarred street in this blown-out urban war zone, a mannequin with painted black hair stares silently at U.S. Marines hunkered down in sandbagged observation posts atop buildings a few blocks away.

It's the latest insurgent ruse in an evolving war pitting the world's most powerful military against guerrilla fighters using their most effective weapon: ingenuity.

Insurgents in Ramadi recently have flown kites over U.S. troops to align mortar-fire, released pigeons to give away U.S. troop movements and staged attacks at fake funeral processions complete with rocket-stuffed coffins, U.S. forces deployed here say.

"They're crafty, I'll give 'em that," said Marine Cpl. John Strobridge, 20, of Orlando, Fla., as his Humvee passed the mannequin along one of the most bomb-infested roads in town, a street Americans call Route Michigan. snip

"They sit there and watch us, observe us for weeks at a time, see how we operate and how we react to things," said Del Gaudio, of Mt. Laurel, N.J. "Then they try to place obstacles in our path."

[maxsolomon]

1. 500,000 troops or none

and since 500,000 weren't used at the start & the entire country searched & all weapons/explosives caches confisctated, i prefer none.

this is futility.

[KurtNYC]

4. Rummy would have sent 500,000 but he didn't think the Iraqis

had enough flowers to greet that many. :sarcasm:

[gratuitous]

2. I thought they were just a bunch of dead-enders

That's what the Secretary of Defense keeps calling them.

Any illusion of craftiness or ingenuity is clearly counter to the SecDef's pronouncements, and should be expunged from the ranks forthwith. Sounds like Cpl. Strobridge is bucking for a court martial to me.

[rocktivity]

3. More proof that Iraq isn't Viet Nam

I mean, what's the difference between a bunch of uncivilized sand-happy brown ragheads and a bunch of uncivilized rice-happy yellow gooks? Uh...tell you what, forget that I wrote this...

:crazy:
rocknation