In Gulf War 1 there was the Gen. Swartzkoff ratio which stated that an enemy unit should be 50% debilitated with airpower before it is overun with ground forces. Is this applicable to the Republican Guard units outside Baghdad this time round?

Here is a cool link I found

http://www.afa.org/magazine/March1998/0398dev.html

Kornet missile link is NS, and why are we interested in these missiles interesting? Could someone fill me in please.

The hyperlink below covers most of the unit symbols used in the Sit Map. By the way, the CNN embed with the 101st said they were facing the Medina division, not the Hammurabi, and that's what the Sit Map shows, so that's now cleared up. I do, however, expect that the Hammurabi is tempted to give support, but they're about 80 miles from the Karbala action, and they don't dare try to move that far.

http://www.foxx-industries.com/2300ad/iss-unit.htm

oh in last Comments there was question if these missiles that Iraq is said to have, could be a problem or not as they were credited with the two M1 combat "kills" so far. Ranger said not.

tech info on them here,
http://www.army-technology.com/projects/kornet/index.html
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/at-14.htm

This ignorant and deeply stupid analysis just about sums up the level of what seems to pass for serious thought in George W. Bush’s White House.

Slanted? Yes, of course.
Pertinent? Yes, of course.

The Kornet is a Soviet/Russian mobile anti-tank missile. Several steps above the RPG.

Thank you Lloyd.

Lots of coalition special forces, Delta force, CIA operatives, and spies are engaged in behind enemy lines sabotage and executions.

They are not wearing identifying military garb.

Does the hypocrisy of the coalition command not stink to high heaven?

here is some more detail regarding Perle and his cohorts. This was found on Bushwatch.com

With Dems in Congress and the media looking into conflict of interest allegations having to do with Richard Perle's private business dealings and his key role in creating U.S. foreign policy that has led to the present war in Iraq, Bush and Rumsfeld had to take the heat off in an attempt to cut off further probes into the complex of ideological, government, business, and Israeli connections that could prove embarrassing to the Bush administration. Thus, Perle pulled a Kissinger and resigned as chairman of the influential Defense Policy Board. Then Rumsfeld indicated that Perle's gesture was all show and no tell by stating that Perle would remain on the Board as a member, thereby allowing him to continue doing what he's been doing. Perle will remain a key member of the Bush Global Dominance team and will continue to walk the corridors of power and get the word out through a complex of friends in high government places and friends in key media and think tank positions. What follows is just one descriptive slice of Perle's incestuous family of conservative hawks who are pulling the strings that make up Bush's foreign policy and world view. While Jeb Bush was brought into this family through his involvement with the PNAC, George Bush is the only major hawk who was not. That's because Bush is a cheerleader, not a thinker, and he appears to be most comfortable when angrily using confrontational rhetoric and tearing up over religious pronouncements.

"...William Kristol [,son of Irving Kristol, is] the crown prince of the neoconservative clique and editor of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Weekly Standard. In 1997, he founded the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a front group which cemented the powerful alliance between right-wing Republicans like Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, Christian and Catholic Right leaders like Gary Bauer and William Bennett, and the neocons behind a platform of global U.S. military dominance.

"Irving Kristol's most prominent disciple is Richard Perle, who was until Thursday the Defense Policy Board chairman, is also a "resident scholar" at the American Enterprise Institute, which is housed in the same building as PNAC. Perle himself married into neocon royalty when he wed the daughter of his professor at the University of Chicago, the late Alfred Wohlstetter – the man who helped both his son-in-law and his fellow student Paul Wolfowitz get their start in Washington more than 30 years ago.

"Perle's own protege is Douglas Feith, who is now Wolfowitz's deputy for policy and is widely known for his right-wing Likud position. And why not? His father, Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist Dalck Feith, was once a follower of the great revisionist Zionist leader, Vladimir Jabotinsky, in his native Poland back in the 1930s. The two Feiths were honored together in 1997 by the right-wing Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

"The AEI has long been a major nexus for such inter-familial relationships. A long-time collaborator with Perle, Michael Ledeen is married to Barbara Ledeen, a founder and director of the anti-feminist Independent Women's Forum (IWF), who is currently a major player in the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and another neo-con power couple – David and Meyrav Wurmser – co-authored a 1996 memorandum for Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu outlining how to break the Oslo peace process and invade Iraq as the first step to transforming the Middle East.

"Though she doesn't focus much on foreign-policy issues, Lynne Cheney also hangs her hat at AEI. Her husband Dick Cheney recently chose Victoria Nuland to become his next deputy national security adviser. Nuland, as it turns out, is married to Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol's main comrade-in-arms and the co-founder of PNAC...." more

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The pamphlet, produced by a group called In Touch Ministries, offers a daily prayer to be made for the US president, a born-again Christian who likes to invoke his God in speeches.

*blaaaarghhh*

Hardboiled:

Reports last night (CNN) claimed the RG has been diminsished to 65% original capability. I haven't seen anything that gives a target number, only that the intent is to significantly soften up the defense before committing significant offense.
Where did I just read/hear that the 3rd was tentatively reaching out to the RG to get them to belie their location so close air support can accurately target them?

The video of the supposedly "destroyed" M1s was linked to in Flash LXXXIV - sorry, I don't have the direct link.

IMO only one tank was definitely damaged. The other one was in a ditch, and from the (admittedly brief) video it looked like it got stuck in said ditch rather than was battle damaged.

Even if the Iraqis have more advanced weaponry than RPGs it may not help much. Apparently one of our tanks was hit by a friendly hellfire missile & survived. The M1 rocks, folks.

I've seen very little mention about the two nobel peace prize winners and several priests who got arrested in washington because of demonstrating last week. It was big in norwegian media, but doesn't seem to have surfaced much elsewhere.

While a kornet may not kill a M1 I would not want to be in a Bradly when it got hit with one of those Kornet missiles. If they have 1000 of those things I'll bet 99% are in and around Baghdad.

Tonight's action has produced three or more fires in Baghdad ... high, sustained flares ... apparently near ground level in built-up areas ... some smoke but not as much as heavy oil ... some sign of incidental solid materials going up.

I speculated gas lines earlier, but maybe we're targeting gas stations? That would degrade mobility in Baghdad without running up an outsized reconstruction bill.

Not to get into an involved religious discussion, but I find this kind of eerie with Bush so intent on invoking God's name. Today's first reading in the Christian lectionary (which of course has been in place for years) deals with God being so angry with the people for mocking his ways (like maybe saying God is on our side in an unjust war?) that the people are killed by the king of Babylon; those who aren't killed are taken to Babylon as slaves. I assume you can guess where Babylon was located.

Rather than pray for Bush how about praying for all the victims of Bush

Someting extra to worry about -- at least two caches of SA missiles have turned up in the field, some missile fire over Baghdad, but AFAIK no reports yet of choppers or A-10's targeted by missile fire (RPG yea, missiles no).

What -- and when -- are they saving them for?

Thanks 49th...good link too.

The beast will rise from Babylon, in the book of Revelation

Lots of coalition special forces, Delta force, CIA operatives, and spies are engaged in behind enemy lines sabotage and executions.

They are not wearing identifying military garb.

Does the hypocrisy of the coalition command not stink to high heaven?

Posted by stunney at March 30, 2003 06:03 PM

Well, lets compare. To the best of my knowledge, the only hypocritical charge that sticks is fighting in civilian clothes, and even there, there is a significant difference. The coalition forces engaged in espionoge are professionals who know they will probably be executed if they are caught. The Iraqis fighting is civilian clothes are a hodge-podge of soldiers and paramilitaries that are simply flex cuffed and shipped of to a POW camp, even when they are found out of uniform. In fact, the Iraqi forces have shown that they are very willing to target their own population (as in Basra the other day) so, coalition forces in civilian clothes will not change their rules of engagement, which are pretty loose to begin with, where as Iraqis fighting is civilian clothes have already forced us to change ours.

Last I checked, everything else the coalition special ops people were doing is legal, including tageting leadership. No different than using a sniper to take out a company or battalion commander.

sorry to double post...

I pray for Bush; my prayer involves a plea to Heaven for more effective pretzels.

somewhere in texas a village is missing their idiot

Tom, I love your post. SOMEWHERE IN TEXAS THE VILLAGE IDIOT IS MISSING.

This is too much. Bush sends all the soldiers into harm's way and HE'S asking THEM to pray for him?

I suppose it makes sense in a twisted sort of way. Maybe they can all pray that he'll come to his senses before he gets more of them killed.

Ranger-

Yes, perhaps those ops and spies do expect to be executed. But does that make them legal? I would argue not.

Stunney's comment really was that the act of operating spies or special ops in civilian garb is hypocritical while complaining about the enemy operating in civilian garb. If that is the case, then the argument of hypocracy should be considered to be true.

Thankyou tom for that...after dinner laugh

the pamplet on prayer was not from Bush, but from an organization asking people to pray for the president, military leaders, and troops. Why would anyone have a problem with that?

Heavily laden with irony, the soldiers are fed a dish of christian casserole: while you fight the good fight and place yourselves in
harms way for your beliefs, pray for your commander-in-chief that you are following.

"Why would anyone have a problem with that?"

I don't think that anybody has a problem with. It just sounds ironic is all. Or stupid.

I did a bit more digging into the 'prayer story' that everyone's fussing about and posted it on my blog. And you can also see the brochure here (in pdf format).

Basically, there's a different prayer every day for the Bush Administration. Plus a prayer for each soldier for a different power each day (strength, wisdom, pucker-power, etc). This is seriously over-the-top Chick Tract crazy God-fearin' stuff.

And of course I screwed it up. The link to the follow-up 'prayer story' on my blog is here with some pithy old-time-religion quotes.

Went by the First Baptist Church of Mexia (Alabama) friday. The sign out front read: "Onward Christian Soldiers - In Jesus Name"

Talk about irony.
Somehow I just can't see Jesus advocating all of this. Maybe Satan or the spectre Death.

Yea, thats it, I vividly see Death, black tattered garments fluttering in the wind, ever roaming the battlefield, never satisfied.

What does "chick tract crazy..." mean?

"Tuesdays, prayer is expected for "the unified support of the American people."

Well I'll be a bean in a bucket, that thar is something to pray for.

"Just remember: The Bush Administration has been divinely appointed (not elected) and will govern accordingly."

"What does "chick tract crazy..." mean?"

Read the article.