Archive for April, 2003

14:40 12 Apr 2003

According to MSNBC, suicide-bomber vests have been found in Baghdad.

U.S. Marines have found a cache of suicide bomb vests in an elementary school in central Baghdad. On the floor of the science classroom — with a picture of Saddam Hussein on the green chalk board — there lay nearly 50 black leather vests each packed with C4 explosives and ball bearings.

They were still on hangers, but there were additional empty hangers. Also, at a middle school about 500 feet away, they found all sorts of guns, missiles, and RPGs.

12:26 12 Apr 2003

General Amir Hamudi Hassan al-Sadi (7 of diamonds) as surrendered to US forces in Baghdad. He was one of Saddam’s top scientific advisors.

12:00 12 Apr 2003

The latest weapons cache find in Iraq apparently is in a house of Saddam’s son Uday (A of hearts).

Loose ammunition of all types and calibers covered the ground in the Baghdad house, spilling out of hundreds of crates. The cache included a small anti-aircraft gun, stacks of Kalashnikovs, sniper rifles, machines guns and brand-new U.S. and Austrian assault rifles, many wrapped in factory plastic. The Austrian rifles were still in their cardboard shipping boxes from the Steyr Mannlicher Aktiengesellschaft in Steyr, Austria. The 5.56 mm rifles had been sent to “Off. of HRH Pr. Abdullah Bin Al-Hussein; Special Op. Command; Jordan Armed Forces; P.O. Box 848 Amman,” the shipping papers said.
How they reached Baghdad, or when, could not be determined, but these particular still-in-the-box weapons looked new enough to have been manufactured after a U.N. arms embargo was placed on Iraq.

If this is the same cache reported earlier today, it also included many gold-plated ceremonial weapons, including pistols and AK-47s. If you’re interested in guns, check out the story. It’s a Texas site, so they know their guns.

11:17 12 Apr 2003

Apparently, the fighting near Al Qa’im, on the Euphrates near the Iraq-Syria border, is more than a few airstrikes. I heard about some strikes against Iraqi forces there a few days ago, but the fighting has been almost non-stop since. According to this story (thanks to The Command Post for the tip) US commandos, assisted by airpower and British and Austrailan forces, are working to prevent Iraqi escapes to Syria, interdict weapons and fighters entering from Syria, and locate and destroy any SCUD launchers that could be used to hit Israel and widen the conflict.

Though little noted by U.S. Central Command briefers in Doha, Qatar, these forces have destroyed Iraqi command centers, missile sites, air defense systems, warplanes and bridges. They also captured three Iraqi airfields that they now control, according to Pentagon officials. And they have attacked Iraqi weapons convoys, taking the enemy soldiers prisoner, and hunted for toxic weapons caches.

This demonstrates once again that the Iraq war plan is wider than most realize and that we are capable of fighting several types of wars and enemies simultaneously and successfully. And BTW, GoSanAngelo.com’s war coverage looks spot on.

13:42 12 Apr 2003

I’ve posted a rather lengthy rebuttal to a Friday WaPo op-ed by Michael Kinsley. He argues that there are many unanswered questions about our involvment in Iraq, and the fact that they remain unanswered justifies opposition to it. I argue that his questions aren’t unanswered at all, and his justifications are an illusion that he would rather see than the real world around him.
Read the rest of this entry »

15:11 11 Apr 2003

If you’re a fan of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi Minister of Information, (and I know you are) check out WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com. Its original host was swamped with traffic. My personal favorite is

“I can say, and I am responsible for what I am saying, that they have started to commit suicide under the walls of Baghdad. We will encourage them to commit more suicides quickly.”

You have got to love that guy. I wonder what happened to him? Although there are a number of Iraqi ministers in the deck of cards, he is not among them.

Update 18:26 11 Apr 2003

I forgot to credit KTLA with forwarding me the link. Thanks.

12:59 11 aPR 2003

The list of Iraqi’s most wanted is being distributed on playing cards. Really.

Very clever. I haven’t seen it pointed out anywhere else, but the ace of clubs is part of the Dead Man’s Hand. Can’t be coincidence, can it? I wonder who’s pictures are on the ace of spades and the black eights.

Update 16:49 11 Apr 2003

It’s Qusay on the ace of clubs. Saddam is the ace of spades. The Dead Man’s Hand is Saddam (ace of spades), Qusay (ace of clubs), Tariq Aziz (8 of spades), and Walid Hamid Tawfiq Al-Tikriti (8 of clubs). The last is (was) the governor of Basrah Protectorate. There’s a lot of debate over which five cards make up the Dead Man’s Hand, but most agree on the above four, at least. You can view all the cards here. Here’s a 22.2 meg file with all 55 seperate cards. Thanks to Oskar on The Command Post.

12:40 11 Apr 2003

StrategyPage has some info about airlifting armored units into Iraq via C-17. Notable is

This tank moving capability was part of the basic specification for C-17s. But it is rarely used because the concentration of weight puts a lot of stress on the C-17, especially during landings. In fact, the air force refuses to land a C-17 carrying a Abrams on a dirt landing field. The C-17 is built to land on such crude fields, but this also puts a lot of extra stress on the landing gear. So adding a rough field and a C-17 with an Abrams is considered too risky. The C-17 can also carry two Bradleys. These, together, are nearly as heavy as one M-1, but the weight is distributed more evenly.

I had read previously that only 1 Bradley could be flown per C-17. Either way, it’s a slow process. Still, airlifting in a major armored unit is quite a feat. The story says that “as many as a hundred” armored vehicles have appeared up north. Incredible. (See? I told you we wouldn’t be flying much armor in!) The story goes on to say that the tanks and IFVs are probably from the 4th ID in Kuwait, but we know that some armor in northern Iraq is from the 1st ID in Germany. Is this maybe a separate force? Honestly, I would have thought that the 4th ID would drive from Kuwait to Tikrit. We’ll see.

20:33 10 Apr 2003

Saddam’s presidential yacht (the one in the background, pal) is looking a bit worse for the war. Thanks to Michael Totten’s blog.

08:23 11 Apr 2003

There are more indications that the military plan in Iraq has failed. Broken. Kaput.

The Iraqi defense in the north isn’t really collapsing. In most places, it doesn’t exist. And military plans rarely survive NO contact with the enemy. Mosul surrendering without a fight. The Kurds take Kirkuk, though they are being relieved by US forces, much to the relief of Turkey. This WaPo story summarizes some of the current events in northern Iraq.

When the final push on Tikrit comes, it is likely to be spearheaded by the 4th Infantry Division, which has finally arrived in force in Kuwait after its equipment was diverted from Turkey, defense officials said. One official said a brigade-sized task force of around 5,000 would be ready to roll north in two days. A final decision on whether that task force reinforces troops in Baghdad or presses on to Tikrit may not be made until it reaches the capital. But one defense official said the 4th Infantry Division vanguard likely would blast past Baghdad toward Tikrit if resistance continues to dissipate. The 101st Airborne Division, now reinforced by a 500-man task force from the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, faces the same options.

Let’s hope that the miltary’s plan for Tikrit can be scapped, too.