Friday, May 18, 2007

More weird war news

An insurgent mortar attack on the Taji Army Airfield in Iraq took out somewhere between 1 and 16 of the Army's helicopters yesterday. These maps show the base in question. The runway is about a mile long, the mortars used in the attack probably have a range of at least twice that length. Quite a security problem judging by the number of civilian building that surround the base.

The destroyed helicopters cost a minimum of $6 million each.

Attacks like these can quickly erase the 1000:1 funding advantage our forces have over the insurgents.

And the Washington Post reports that Israel waved 500 Fatah fighters trained by the U.S. in Egypt into the Gaza battlefield today to combat Hamas.

So much for being an honest broker in the Middle East conflict.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for being the only non-insane person at Michael Totten's site.

I'm not surprised "redaktor" couldn't understand the point I was making -- that right-wing lunatics everywhere often refer to more moderate people as belonging to the official enemy. Thus, right-wing lunatics in Iran often call moderates there "Jews," while right-wing lunatics in America often call moderates here "jihadis." (It was particularly nice of redaktor then to make this point for me.)

However, I am surprised Totten himself was mystified by this. I would think anyone who's visited more than one country would find it completely obvious...though of course you don't even need to leave your country, if you have any self-awareness whatsoever.

10:54 PM  
Blogger alphie said...

I understood your point, jrs.

Perhaps Michael will reread your posts and unban you when he realizes what you were trying to say.

1:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah...I don't know. Based on this experience, I can't say he strikes me as a particularly reflective guy. I later sent him email pointing out it's a little odd that at the same time he was unhappy with me, he was apparently fine with someone saying "I have no problem with terrorism and terrorists. And I also have no problem with killing every men woman and child associated with terrorists." He didn't respond.

4:17 AM  

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