i think they're just trying to lay some groundwork for the next Entertainment Arts role-based, shoot-em-up orgy of violence.

the heretofore working titles of "The Wholesale Capitulation of Baghdad" or "Rocket Propelled Grenade in Your Ass" did not sound promising.

"14 mortar firing positions"?

I don't really have a military background so please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a mortar firing position a random patch of earth that someone happened to fire a mortar from?

LeonS, I believe you're thinking of "normal" mortars that you can pack up and run away with immediately after you fire them and before your position gets bombed all to hell. I guess the Iraqis must be using the other kind where the base is set in concrete and reinforced with rebar, that take weeks of painstaking craftsmanship to set up.

undoubtedly the number of mortar attacks will now drop dramatically.

boy, y'know, I started out trying to make a joke, but now I'm just depressed...

You know, and I realise that since I am nowhere near the US / Iraq and as such have only the various media among other sources to go by, I can't escape the conclusion that the people who run the show for you are complete and utter lunatics.

From the moment I heard that they (I have hard time saying we anymore) were attacking wind-mills, er, "hideouts", I was curious why they don't "stake-out" this dens of rebellion to capture or kill the insurgents.

My guess is that munitions factors were promised more "factory orders" and the defense department is happy to comply.

"They're desperate. The more they attack us, the more it means we're winning in Iraq. We're making progress and that makes them mad, so they hit harder. But they won't prevail."
That was a pretty accurate analysis, Mr. Bush.

The surreal plot lines are all melting into each another

My feeling exactly. Thanks for sharing this. I thought for a while that it was my personal space-time that was ripping but now I see that it is a collective tearing.

I agree that a lot of this military machismo is to wow the folks back home and to keep the Republican base secure. Sadly, it seems to be working but I am doing what I can to correct such bizarre views. Hey, but we are on the Bizarro Planet so why am I surprised.

The best is the destruction of the "ambush sites"--only four? You might as well just level Baghdad to get rid of all the potential ambush sites...

The beauty of the war on buildings is that buildings can't go into hiding.

The blind flailing of a wounded giant as the Lilliputians pin him down.

This is getting stoopid.

Desert=peace.

Watched "The Life of David Gale" last night, and this morning was perusing a critical review by Roger Ebert. The following tidbit came from that review, and I thought - although not particularly germane to this blog entry - it was worth sharing as a reflection on the value our inspirational leader's places on a life or two.

"No, the movie is set in Texas, which in a good year all by itself carries out half the executions in America. Death Row in Texas is like the Roach Motel: Roach checks in, doesn't check out. When George W. Bush was Texas governor, he claimed to carefully consider each and every execution, although a study of his office calendar shows he budgeted 15 minutes per condemned man (we cannot guess how many of these minutes were devoted to pouring himself a cup of coffee before settling down to the job). Still, when you're killing someone every other week and there's an average of 400 more waiting their turn, you have to move right along."

The sudden escallation in US attacks against imaginary targets is simply propaganda aimed at the heart of America. When there is no plan, make a big noise. On the other hand, if you kill enough Iraqi citizens/insurgents/guerillas/terrorists/jihadists eventually there will be fewer to cause problems. Cheney/Rove have no interest in these people, just politics.

I suspect the show of force is mostly designed to impress Iraqis who are not in the insurgency, not to join.

Intimidate the citizenry. Impress the folks back home that our bombs are bigger. It's all a freaking circus now and it completely disses those with lives on the line, American or Iraqi.

"14 mortar firing positions"?

I don't really have a military background so please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a mortar firing position a random patch of earth that someone happened to fire a mortar from?

My personal fav. was NPR's description of an aerial attack on an athletic field with I believe attack helicopters, which had been used to fire mortars. They described the field as 'neutralized'.

when the facts are on your side, bang on the facts.

if they aren't, bang on the table.

"Without speaking of those operations specifically, General Swannack said the stepped-up offensive 'demonstrates our resolve, and we are not going to fight this one with one hand tied behind our backs.' Echoing a historical quote from the British military, the general said the Army was going to 'use a sledgehammer to smash a walnut.'"
Few Signs of Infiltration by Foreign Fighters in Iraq

So they're actually admitting to a poor choice of tools. What I found extra interesting about this article was Brinkley's observation that the military seems to be making a particular effort to debunk the "thousands of foreign/al Qaeada terrorists pouring over the Syrian border into Iraq" scenario talked up by the administration. Let's listen to the military about military matters this time around.

"This is war," Major-General Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, based in western Iraq, said during a briefing in Baghdad. "We're going to use a sledgehammer to crush a walnut. ... now there's no holds barred".

- Los Angeles Times

So what exactly did the "end of major hostilities" mean ?
This shit is getting more mindboggling all the time.

"And the primary target appears to be the Republican base back home, not guerrilla bases in Iraq."

And the true enemy of the Republican base, more than even the Baathists or even Al Quaeda, are American liberals.

They really don't even deny it anymore. These wars are being manipulated simply to win elections to defeat their true enemy, the so-called American Left.

Here's some good double-speak: "legitimate" military targets? Palm groves, athletic fields, overgrown ditches, warehouses, homes...

The officials rejected any comparison to the tactics employed by the Israeli military in the West bank and Gaza, saying the U.S. actions are not aimed at punishing sympathizers, but rather are aimed at eliminating legitimate military targets. (Full story)

Israel Defense Forces characterized its tactics in a September 30 statement: "The demolition of the houses of terrorists sends a message that anyone who participates in terrorist activity will pay a price for their actions."

Brits did have some success using air power to suppress a popular revolt in Iraq back in the '20s. But they used poison gas

Can you site a good source on this? I did a couple web searches and found articles claiming the RAF used it, articles claiming the RAF didn't but the Army did, and others claiming they stock piled it to use, but didn't wind up needing it.

What I found extra interesting about this article was Brinkley's observation that the military seems to be making a particular effort to debunk the "thousands of foreign/al Qaeada terrorists pouring over the Syrian border into Iraq" scenario

It's only my opinion, but I think the military has had enough of the neocons' bullsh*t war. To allow a terrorists-pouring-into-Iraq lie to remain in place allows Bush to put this disaster in the context of his great "War on Terrorism" and keep the military there.

I suspect these bombings of empty buildings are designed to impress the folks back home, and also to boost morale among the troops, who must be feeling pretty dejected by now.

Granted, the Brits did have some success using air power to suppress a popular revolt in Iraq back in the '20s. But they used poison gas. I don't think Centcom is ready to dig that deep into its bag of war crimes.

But then at least Bush could say, finally with honesty, that there were "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq. (He'd have to give up the "gassed his own people" talking point, though.)

As Steve G. said a few days ago, we've lost. When we use a 500 pound bomb on a soccer field to "fight" a guerrilla war, we've already lost. We compound the felony by attacking houses with families trying to live their lives under difficult circumstances. And Bremer says Iraqi governance will include "American values." We're showing American values now. God help us and the Iraqis.

Charles

Abandoned dye factory (an urban eyesore?), orchards (let them eat junk food) and empty fields (to provide nutrients?).

Bush - "They're desperate. The more they attack us, the more it means we're winning in Iraq. We're making progress and that makes them mad, so they hit harder. But they won't prevail."
Did Joseph Heller start writing Bush's stuff?

"They're desperate. The more they attack us, the more it means we're winning in Iraq. We're making progress and that makes them mad, so they hit harder. But they won't prevail."

This great judgment can work both ways, if the speaker was Saddam Hussayn instead. Are the Iraqis making progress and therefore we are hitting back harder?

What a bunch of sad sacks! Look on the bright side: all of those fireworks are good for the economy.

Replacing all of the "shock and awe" from the start of the war was the only thing to bump up the GDP for the past three years.

This is another of Bush's far-sighted stimulus plans, like them tax cuts.

You got to wonder just how many Iraqis are currently incarcerated and what the living conditions are for those incarcerated? And we've started hearing about US troops abusing their prisoners now too and the all the while the Bush Administration is pushing for Iraqis to support the regime of “ruin the farmers houses” and "make a lot of Iraqis crawl or beg or whatever" via a recruiting method of turnstile Iraqifcation corps building process. This quick, imprecise and indifferent training process is bound to be a success as I'm sure we all noticed how effective Bush's style of visceral hate plans have worked so well in the past with UN vast approval rates.

Maybe the conservative brethren figures they waited too long in Vietnam to try these tactics sooner and that we would have won Vietnam if we had gotten so much meaner, so much sooner-and surely they have noticed how successful Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been while using the same measures of house razing tactics.

All those problematic Bush policies, everyone being one of those “go to hell” policies, as in “You don’t like it, you can go to HELL” have all been winners right?

Well I don't like it and it seems to me that hell is the only place such policies will lead to, so maybe to a guy like Bush, that's success. As I feel pretty certain that as soon as things look like more like HELL they'll declare victory and leave-just like in Nam.

Excerpts from Bush's keynote speech during state visit to London:

"In some cases, the measured use of force is all that protects us from a chaotic world ruled by force"

"The hope that danger has passed is comforting, is understanding, and it is false ... These terrorists target the innocent and they kill by the thousands."

"These are the methods of the old elites, who time and again have put their own self-interest above the interests of the people they claim to serve ... "

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test. (okay - not in the keynote speech, but I just like this Bush-ism so much!)

Please God, let the Dems field a viable candidate...

Attacks aren't just for the base at home, but for the poor line doggies serving as duckies in the arcade. You've got all these heavily armed troopers trained to move aggresively to apply their firepower to destroy the enemy. The appropriate enemy being another army.

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict we will eventually learn that US military commanders probably aren't real happy with this 'offensive'. They probably know just how futiley counter-productive massive firepower is in a war of pacification. OTH in the short run these 'thunder runs' will buck up the troops.

All going back to the Bushit's initial assumption that Iraq would just accept our storming in and giving them a new government. We don't have peacekeeper troops and we've alienated everyone who might have provided them.

Supplementing my previous comment, just remember that our campaign is exactly what Osama bin Ladin needs for his own purposes: AMERICANS COME TO DAR AL'ISLAM TO KILL AND CRUSH OUR RELIGON! RISE UP AND DRIVE OUT OF POWER ALL GOVERNMENTS THAT PERMIT THEM TO KILL US & DESTROY OUR RELIGION!

Bush is the fly and Iraq is the flypaper. Talk about giving aid and comfort to the enemy

This Philly Inquirer article, "U.S. Officer Defends Felling Of Iraq Homes", shows how Shrubco wants to have it both ways. These actions are OK because they're at war. Gee, sometimes it's an occupation, sometimes it's a war, depending on the circumstances.

The decision to destroy at least a dozen homes belonging to family members of guerrilla suspects in and around Tikrit was "within the rules of war" and was approved by the commander of the Fourth Infantry Division and probably by the overall commander for U.S. forces in Iraq, a spokesman for the division said yesterday.

Some military officers acknowledged that the tactic had caused debate over whether it would inflame opposition rather than tamp it down. One officer referred to the demolitions as "unprecedented."

...A division spokesman, Maj. Gordon Tate... said he assumed the overall commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, had approved the demolitions, because a change in policy "would have to come from him."

Oh well. I hear military vehicles get really poor traction in flower petals anyway.

Maybe they'll have to unpack that flight suit again, so W. can put it on to announce from another carrier that "major hostilities" have re-commenced.

What will the banner on the aircraft carrier say this time?

"QUAGMIRE ACCOMPLISHED?"

Although most Americans believe that we have around 130,000 troops in Iraq, we actually only have 56,000 combat-trained troops there. The rest are support-and-logistics trained. 50% of the troops polled said they had a low or poor morale according to the Stars & Stripes.

Our military force is designed to fight a peer-to-peer war, with the enemy using just slightly less advanced technology in an open battlefield with conventional forces, not a low-tech urban guerrilla force.

A recent CIA report placed the Iraqi guerrilla force at around 30,000. Estimates range from 5,000 to 50,000. Everyone says its a growing number, even Rumsfeld.

Lawrence of Arabia was able to successfully combat 200,000 Turkish troops with 3,000 guerrilla forces. That's not an anomaly.

The possibilities of this turning out well are about as slim as Bush passing a spelling bee.

Well, Lawrence was helped by Allenby's conventional army's advance, but still, he gained ground with just a bunch of nomads with explosives, rifles and a handful of machine guns.

"These are the methods of the old elites, who time and again have put their own self-interest above the interests of the people they claim to serve ... "
BUSH said that? Oh the irony of it all, lost on this hack.

No, really, these people are geniuses, dadaist art at its best: bombing athletism fields with 500 pounds bombs. That's just so absurd it can only be part of a revival of Western modern arts.

Strongly reminds me of Caligula's only military campaign, when he decided to kick German ass. Germans were quiet at the time and he was bored, so eventually he sent a bunch of Germans from his guard in a forest, telling them to come out of it later against the camp, shooting. Fake skirmish followed. Caligula claims victory. Next he decides to attack Neptun and the Ocean. Army moves to seashore, siege engines, catapults and the like lined in front of the sea, fire a few volleys in the water, then the troops gather sea shells as war trophy and enemy spoils.

What Bush doesn't understand is that we have to make concessions and that the only time anyone has had any success was when Turkey, after having to many suicide bombers offered grants that help build and improve the Kurdish farmers conditions then and only then did the suicide bombers stop.

Charles Dodgson got it right on his looking glass weblog.

Here's the reason:

He believes that jihad against soldiers here will force the American government to pay attention. Force them to act more decisively in fixing the mess they created. Change will only come if enough Americans go home in body bags.
He believes that we can clean up the mess, and that the only reason we haven't, is because we don't know they're upset. And that killing a few soldiers is the best way to tell us. In fact, of course, what it's likely to provoke is even more confrontational behavior on the part of American troops -- the American army's top priority has been to protect itself, and as Trent Lott mused a few weeks ago, the logical conclusion of that policy is to just "mow the whole place down".

Bush just says "bring em on" and even Thomas Friedman said "we hit em and we hit em hard"...

These people have extremely different mindsets than Americans do...But try and tell that to the Bush conservative junta - as Bush said "liberals want to try therapy."

"We're going to use a sledgehammer to crush a walnut. ... now there's no holds barred".

Those little walnuts like to strap on bombs and commit suicide. So crushing walnuts who are willing to blow themselve up will do little good.

Presumably the shots of smart bombs levelling buildings will provide some good competition on the nightly news for the stories about American dead and wounded and other snafus.

At www.antiwar.com they have a photo of a 500lb bomb blowing up...an empty patch of desert. That's one mortar-firing-position down! Only 50 million more to go!

Although most Americans believe that we have around 130,000 troops in Iraq, we actually only have 56,000 combat-trained troops there.

More fun with numbers: InfoPlease lists Iraq's mid-2003 population as 24,683,313. Therefore, if only one quarter of one percent of Iraqis become angered enough to take up arms against the occupation, they will outnumber U.S. combat troops.

Full text of
London keynote speech

I particularly like the "Woodrow Wilson made a pledge; with typical American understatement..." Yeah ... "Operation Iron Hammer" ... so subtle.

Also - stooping to Franco-bashing (just can't let go of those "Freedom Fries") -

"President Wilson had come to Europe with his 14 Points for Peace. Many complimented him on his vision; yet some were dubious. Take, for example, the Prime Minister of France. He complained that God, himself, had only 10 commandments. (Laughter.) Sounds familiar. (Laughter.)"

God, what a prick.

London Keynote Speech

Whoops ...does this work? Need HTML for dummies.

Gothic Peacock:

There is a lot avaialble onlin on British use of chemical weapons in Iraq. Here is a quote from the guardian.

Churchill was particularly keen on chemical weapons, suggesting they be used “against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment.” He dismissed objections as “unreasonable.” “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes [to] spread a lively terror." In today's terms, "the Arab" needed to be shocked and awed. A good gassing might well do the job.

Just google for Churchill and poison gas and you will find tons. i mention some of this in my own article about the halabja hall of shame

There is no excuse for using chemical weapons -- or indeed any of the ABC weapons. However, the opponents of the WWI era are infamous for the use of chemicals against each other throughout the war. And although European civilians were generally not targets but instead "collateral damage," the use of poison gas in Iraq was primarily against a popular, read "civilian" uprising.

However, in the spirit of the moment, Rumsfeld today said that America will use nuclear weapons against North Korea to protect South Korea -- mind you, not to protect America but to protect another country we will sell our souls -- if we have any souls left to begin with.

OT: And for some great insight on the propaganda campaign out of Washington, read Col Hackworth's article on Pentagon spin.

Spinning fumbles into touchdowns

Don't you people know the threat that guerilla houses pose?

You'd be laughing on the other side of your face if a cosy four bedroom A-frame with a double garage ambushed you with an RPG in your suburban neighberhood. Or worse, blew itself up on your kids school bus.

You liberals need to stop your whining.

Everyone keeps talking about the US military tactics being comparable to Israel, but I think we need to go back farther in history.
My memory of American Revolution history is rusty, but didn't the British use the same tactics against us? (destroying the homes of suspected insurgents) and didn't it backfire and bring folks on board who were otherwise indifferent?

Sorta puts a whole new light on Saddam's use of terror and brutality to squelch any thoughts of rebellion amongst the public at large, doesn't it? A cynical thought, but what if he resorted to those kind of tactics because it was in fact the ONLY way to keep a lid on a boiling cauldron... remember how the former Yugoslavia went straight to hell after old Tito kicked the bucket?

ANKARA, Nov. 19 — The head of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council said on Wednesday U.S. occupying forces were fast losing popular support in his country and said only Iraqis would be able to restore order there.
........
 ''The United States has brought peace and freedom to Iraq, but they are losing sympathy day by day since they are now an occupying force,'' Talabani told CNN Turk.
........
''The United States does not want to fight in the mountains. They have already lost lots of people. They cannot take the risk of losing more,'' he said....

ANKARA, Nov. 19 — The head of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council said on Wednesday U.S. occupying forces were fast losing popular support in his country and said only Iraqis would be able to restore order there.

Yep, Bush will need to step-up his step-up plan...we cut and run right after Christmas...instead of the next Fall why stay another hot summer, right?--Sen. Lott want's to know the answer is to, if we "mow the whole place down and see what happens?" We high-tail-it out there on the double-I sure that is whats going to happen.

NO cutting and running-my ass as it's never going to be stable enough for oil production anyway.

WKD: Yea, if I was ever ambushed by a cosy A-frame with a double garage, I'd certainly be "laughing out of the other side of my face".

The problem here is that your moronic hero Dumbya has led this country into a fiasco that can only lead to more terrorism. And he did so based on lies and more damned lies. And so far there's nothing to show for it but thousands of dead Iraqis and hundreds of dead coalition personnel, thousands of maimed people on both sides, and a gazillion dollars down the toilet, just to start a very long list of dubious results.

So, in closing, get bent.

Steve Bell cartoon at Manchester Guardian

I agree about the domestic target. Every time there is a big loss of American lives, like in the recent helicopter downings, there are a spate of articles with robust headlines about how we are whipping ass. The administration doesn't want it to look like we're losing.

By the way, have you noticed how much Republicans like the word "robust"? Somebody should compile a list of robust quotations.

As a former military guy, I highly doubt the Iraqis are using static mortar positions.. It'd be suicidal & you'd loose your piece.. Most likely they are popping off a few shells (with a portable system) and then hightail it out of there before we can get a lock on that position..

Happened to me all the time in Bosnia.. Serbs were inaccurate as hell, but still spooks ya.. even a broken clock is right twice a day..

i saw w sitting there with the queen mum. wht a peasant speaking his double speak (dubya-speak) thank ya. i saw lady bush do samal talk with that homo-prince chuckie d. so get over it. w is a peasant impressed with the whole regala. why does he have to bow to the throne of england for credibilty? fascism is fascism same old same old. americans think their nascent dreams of empire are sooooooo unique. barely.

Kind of puts pappa Bush's decision not to 'march on Baghdad in 91, for which he has been much criticized, in a new light, eh? Here's what one leader said about that decision:

"If you're going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein you have to go to Baghdad. Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?"

That was then VP Dick Cheney.

Must have taken some stoopid pills since then. Actually PNAC got to him. Same thing.

Incidentally, while I agree that Iraq (created by British & French negotiators, very much concerned w/their own spheres of influence and not at all on nation-building) may very well need a strong hand at the helm. Saddam Hussein was/is plainly a sadistic man who excelled at cruelty, and I would never endorse the many bloody excesses of his rule.

That is, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, a warm, charming man whose easy smile and twinkling blue eyes belie his reptillian ancestry.

Er, dan... you need to re-read WKD's post again with the sarcasm tag enabled in your browser. (A funny one, WKD. Thanks for the laugh.)

Tell you what, guys, shake hands and I'll buy you both a beer.

Works for me. Make mine beer like.Or something.

There was also

US Jets Pound Guerrilla Sites

"I'll pound you good, you little dweeb!"

When I think that the lifetime tax take off of say ten median families goes into pounding ONE empty building with just ONE bomb... you just gotta feel...

a little...

"Shock and Awe"

at these CHICKEN-hawk Georgie's war.

It's the Chickenhawk War, fought the Chickenhawk way... with other people's money and other people's lives.

Just wait until they don't have to hold back for reelection purposes.....

Unless we get scared enough, mad enough and motivated enough to stop this creeping coup, blowing up empty houses in Iraq will be the least of our worries...

My favorite quote from the LA times (via antiwar.com):

"Residents of the mostly Arab neighborhood near Monday's bombing in Kirkuk didn't appear to be intimidated. Many assumed it was a U.S. target-practice exercise and went about their business."

Yep, sure seems to intimidate the locals...

I think this may just be the administration's way of telling the voters: We feel your genocidal rage.

I dunno bout that. Dumbya (mighty morphin texas power ranger) is feelin mighty frustrated right now, what with Iraxico goin wrong and that whole thing bout them Brits objectin to his bein knighted and all. When he's frustrated he makes himself feel good by exerting force (smashing things). Sure it ain't just to make him feel good?

ego, Ebert wrote that? Wow. I actually developed a little respect for him just now.

Ape, Roger Ebert is a liberal. Go to progressive.org and download the interview.

In Turkey, things go Boom! Al-Qaeda, prolly.

I keep coming back over here to see if the usual jewel pops up but the 'Bar' is about to fall off my FAVORITES list. C'mon Billmon (if that's really your name) recruit a guest blogger or two to keep the fire banked until the ol' humdrum & drang on your back begin to lighten a bit. Don't let this good thing die.