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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NickSE who wrote (20232)	12/17/2003 10:37:14 AM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793597

Kerry is the worst of all of them. He has not gotten over his service in Vietnam. He killed folks and watched buddies die and then came to the conclusion that the war was wrong. I sympathize with him greatly but it is clear that his type of "confliction" should disqualify him for the commander in chief portion of the Presidents job. John McCain is on the reverse side of that spectrum. Mike PS Howard Deans liberalism comes from his response to a racist/anti-semetic/mayflower father thus the call for full repeal of tax cuts to help the poor. Again i am sympathetic to the background but the views come with baggage imo.

To: NickSE who wrote (20232)	12/17/2003 8:47:01 PM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793597

Hard lessons applied to convoy protection by John Diamond and Dave Moniz, USA TODAY usatoday.com WASHINGTON — An internal military report says Iraqi insurgents have grown more sophisticated in ambushing U.S. military convoys. Attackers are targeting small groups traveling without air cover and using a variety of tricks to get the convoys to slow down so guerrillas can spring a trap. More than 130,000 U.S. troops are spread across central and northern Iraq. With military convoys traveling daily along predictable routes, roadside ambushes have become a staple of the Iraqi insurgency. The report, a 30-page computer slide presentation prepared by the 101st Airborne Division, comes after the deadliest month for coalition forces since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March. The report warns of adaptive and increasingly sophisticated tactics by the guerrillas. U.S. commanders have warned publicly of increasing Iraqi attacks. The report has not been released but has circulated widely among U.S. operations and intelligence officers. It recommends increased use of standard Army trucks with improvised .50-caliber machine-gun mounts in the rear. Initial results from convoys employing these trucks have been positive, a U.S. intelligence official said. But other commanders want to increase the use of armored or "heavy" Humvees with machine guns mounted inside in a protective turret. Iraqi fighters look for small vehicle convoys without air cover, according to the report on what the military calls Iraqi "TTP" — tactics, techniques and procedures. The guerrillas tend to strike at night, using spotters with cell phones to alert attackers to approaching convoys. Some attacks involve visible roadside bombs set as bait to get convoys to slow down or divert into "kill zones" rigged with larger, better-hidden explosives. Guerrillas have even staged accidents to slow an approaching convoy. Guerrilla attacks and other hostile actions have killed 193 American servicemembers since President Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1; 79 of those died in November. Those figures suggest that while the number of daily attacks declined, Iraqi guerrillas found ways to make each attack more deadly. One reason for the high U.S. death toll in November: Three Army helicopters were shot down or crashed while evading enemy fire, killing a total of 28 soldiers. Until those incidents, helicopters were thought to be a safer way of ferrying troops than convoys. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said that the pace of guerrilla attacks is likely to increase in the next six months as the U.S.-led coalition prepares to hand over power to a new Iraqi government. The challenge posed by Iraqi tactics is that they keep changing. A high-ranking U.S. officer based in Iraq said Iraqi guerrillas rarely kill more than one American soldier in an ambush and often lose many of their own in a hail of return fire. An infantry squad of 15 to 20 soldiers is usually enough to repel any guerrilla attack, the officer said. Because of improving defensive tactics, the officer said, "the Iraqis at some point have had so little success in attacking convoys with ambushes that they will soon begin choosing other targets." Sanchez ordered the 101st Airborne Division to take the lead in studying the convoy security problem. A division staff sergeant wrote the document based on personal experience and field reports. The report is an example of the efforts by the U.S. military to learn from hard experience as the main occupying force in Iraq. Virtually all convoys must be considered possible targets for Iraqi guerrillas, the report's author warns. But groups of two to four vehicles are particularly vulnerable. Signs of trouble often crop up well before an attack on a convoy. Soldiers are learning to become alert for Iraqis who appear inordinately interested in a convoy, particularly if they are speaking on a cell phone as the vehicles pass. "These personnel may be a scout or recon (reconnaissance) asset for a potential ambush force farther down the road," the report says. Guerrillas tend to attack the rear vehicles in a convoy to make it more difficult for U.S. forces to return fire. When they shoot at convoy vehicles, guerrillas aim for the front windshield, anyone manning a mounted gun and the thin-skinned side doors of trucks and non-armored Humvees. The report recommends positioning one gun truck 400 yards to the rear of a convoy to bring return fire on the guerrilla position from an unexpected direction. An attack with rocket-propelled grenades usually begins with small-arms fire from one side of the road to distract U.S. forces as guerrillas with grenades move to attack from the opposite side. The attackers step out into the road and try to shoot head-on at convoy vehicles, or attack them broadside. A favored tactic of guerrillas involves improvised explosive devices, or IEDs in military jargon, which can be made of anything from artillery rounds to wads of plastic explosive or deadly mixtures of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel. Guerrillas typically hide several of these devices, often wired together at intervals of about 30 yards. Coalition forces have made some progress in recent weeks jamming the signals that set off these explosives. Recently, U.S. forces encountered roadside bombs placed as "bait rounds" in plain view to bring a convoy to a halt well short of the device but within range of other, better-concealed explosives, all within sight of a guerrilla observation post. In other instances, broken-down vehicles or staged car accidents have been used to try to halt or slow military convoys. Increased use of cargo trucks with machine guns mounted in the rear, as recommended in the report, conjures images of the famed British "Rat Patrol" in North Africa during World War II. But not everyone is satisfied with this response. "Most would rather have real fighting vehicles for convoys, not some kludged-together .50-cal sitting on top of sandbags in the back of a 7-ton" truck, a U.S. intelligence official said. The high-ranking military officer said armored Humvees are the best vehicles for convoy duty. Bradley Fighting Vehicles, the officer said, tend to tear up the roads. The 101st Airborne report recommends several tactics to counter the ambushes in addition to the "gun trucks": •Once an attack starts, speed through the "kill zone," then maneuver and return fire. •Install improvised protection such as sandbags on the sides and floors of vehicles. •Remove doors from trucks and Humvees to make it easier to shoot back. •Smaller vehicles, though they offer little protection from gunfire, can maneuver to evade rocket-propelled grenades. In all capital letters, the report implores soldiers inside vehicles to wear their body armor.