British Army has captured Basra - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Talk about what you've seen in the news today.

Moderator: PoFo Today's News Mods

#6418
ITV news just reported (on TV) that the British army has driven right into the centre of Basra. Their TV crew there filmed them driving in with... wait for it... Iraqis lining the streets cheering. When they stopped in the centre of town the locals jumped onto the tanks celebrating and the Iraq army is said to have disapeared, it's soldiers removing their uniforms.

It's easy to be cynical about this kind of news given recent events, but that was what the pictures on TV showed.

There is an article on the ITV site here: http://www.itv.com/news/1143127.html

And the Independent here: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/mid ... ory=394565

There are some TV pictures on the ITV site but I couldn't get them to load.
By Krasniy Yastreb
#6421
Hmm, well if they have taken the town it's about time. But I tend to disregard sensationalist sources like ITV, and the Independent is just the Guardian with smarter clothes on, eh?

But if they have taken the City, It's damn good news. Looks like their wait-outside-till-the-enemy-shit-their-pants-and-run technique has worked a good'un. Let's hope the hyped up, trigger happy yanks at Baghdad can learn from this.
User avatar
By KurtFF8
#6424
Krasniy Yastreb wrote:Hmm, well if they have taken the town it's about time. But I tend to disregard sensationalist sources like ITV, and the Independent is just the Guardian with smarter clothes on, eh?

But if they have taken the City, It's damn good news. Looks like their wait-outside-till-the-enemy-shit-their-pants-and-run technique has worked a good'un. Let's hope the hyped up, trigger happy yanks at Baghdad can learn from this.


how are the american troops being trigger happy in baghdad? its not like were rushing in there with a blitzkeirg tactic
User avatar
By Boondock Saint
#6431
Oi!

If that recent bombing of a convoy doesnt irk the shiz out of me ...

Freindly fire I can live with ... so long as its American troops getting it ... but what irks me more then anything is when we kill our allies ... now, I am not one who harps on freindly fire ... I think its part of war .. and it happens ...

But an entire freakin convoy out of the north which should be the only convy out of the north due to the small numbers up there should have freakin been SAFE!!!

How the hell can we convince the kurds its a good idea to fight by our side when we blow the shiz out of ourselves and everyone by our side?

Man that pisses me off ... its not like we need to convince the kurds to help topple Saddam, they WANT to topple Saddam ... but they want to live to see Saddam toppled ...

Anyway, it seems we are taking our time with Baghdad ... not exactly blitzing in ... sure we sent a recon detachment in but thats to be expected ...

During the day it seems Baghdad is being emptied ... most likely by soldiers with no uniforms ... :hmm:
User avatar
By Siberian Fox
#6449
I have just watched a Totally different account of the final attack on Basra.

The BBC corresponant filmed the attack from the front and showed the British Army having to fight thier way in street by street. The result was the same, but the Iraqi army certainly did put up resistance. Looks like the ITV people were sat at the back somewhere... but the ITV isn't the best of news sources... they're a bit too tabloid in thier style for my taste.
User avatar
By KurtFF8
#6468
Siberian Fox wrote:Kurt when are you going to learn how to selectively quote rather than just sticking the entire post in your own to make it look like you have written more than you actually have? :eh:


I dont do it to make it look like ive written more than I allready have (cause i dont see how that makes sense anyway...but) I just do it becuase its easy to just click reply with quote, type what u want, and post
User avatar
By Siberian Fox
#6470
KurtFF8 wrote:
Siberian Fox wrote:Kurt when are you going to learn how to selectively quote rather than just sticking the entire post in your own to make it look like you have written more than you actually have? :eh:


I dont do it to make it look like ive written more than I allready have (cause i dont see how that makes sense anyway...but) I just do it becuase its easy to just click reply with quote, type what u want, and post


See, See!

If that is your reason Kurt then don't bother quoting at all. It just means people have to scroll through what they've just read before they have to read your one line of text.
By sokath
#6471
Yeah, Kurt, if you want people to know that you're responding to them, or their ideas then do it with something small like "@ so and so" or use their name somewhere in the reply... but for the love of god, stop quoting so damned much unless it actually means something...

otherwise you just reduce the value and validity of quotations for everybody else.

S./
By Krasniy Yastreb
#6610
OK OK let's lay off Kurt now, eh? I'm sure he's learnt his lesson. :)

OK so maybe 'trigger-happy' isn't the right word, but it's damn close. Considering the only friendly fire made by UK forces was the Challenger-on-Challenger incident, and that the US has killed dozens on it's own side, it kinda makes you think. :hmm:
User avatar
By Boondock Saint
#6614
Krasniy Yastreb

In fairness there are more opportunities for US forces to engage in freindly fire ... as there are more US forces, especially air forces in country ...

But, I agree something needs to be done to effectively prevent such incidents from occuring and indeed such incidents should raise eyebrows.
By Krasniy Yastreb
#6623
I think the the amount of US friendly fire is greater even with those factors taken into account, but I'm not going to argue...

It would be a good start to prosecute those responsible for friendly fire incidents, rather than cover it up and give the offending soldier/sailor/airman immunity.
User avatar
By Boondock Saint
#6636
Prosecute?

As if the commited a crime?

Well ... I suppose if they have the pilot on record saying

--'we got freindlys on the ground, copy. I am going to engage, copy.'

NEGATIVE DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT ENGAGE THOSE ARE FREINDLIES!!

--'Copy that, freindlies ... rolling out to engage, weapon away, friendlies destroyed! WOOO!!! I killed those damn marines good!'

Well ... yea ... then I would agree, they should be treated like criminals ... but, I dont think pilots take much joy if any in killing freindlies ...
By John Doe
#6653
Actually, friendly fire incidents are rather common in modern combined arms warfare. This site has estimates since WWII:

WWII - 21%
Korea - 18%
Vietnam - 39%
Persian Gulf - 49%

Without looking around more I can't vouch for the accuracy of the figures, but it seems to me that John Keegan's The Face of Battle had similar numbers (which is why I expected these types of numbers when I searched the web for statistics).

Combined arms are the melding of infantry, armour, artillery and air assets - which is a difficult thing to do. Various armies of the world have struggled with that problem since WWI. Combined Arms Warfare in the Twentieth Century by Jonathan M. House is a detailed albeit rather dry discussion of that evolution if you are interested.

Two things concerning the distribution of the friendly fire incidents. It is not surprising that the problem is more pronounced with American planes providing support for allies due to differences in doctrine. Also, there are likely fewer English hits on American targets because they don't press their air support any where near as close to friendly units as the US does.

Friendly fire and close support with combined arms is definitely a problem. However, you have to balance those rising percentages with the fact that more effective close support and coordination is also leading to fewer casualties over all.
User avatar
By KurtFF8
#6655
Krasniy Yastreb wrote:OK OK let's lay off Kurt now, eh? I'm sure he's learnt his lesson. :)


yeah! lol

Krasniy Yastreb wrote:OK so maybe 'trigger-happy' isn't the right word, but it's damn close. Considering the only friendly fire made by UK forces was the Challenger-on-Challenger incident, and that the US has killed dozens on it's own side, it kinda makes you think.


but you have to remember, there are only 40,000 british troops, and about 150,000 (or around that number) american troops there, so the proportions are diffrent (allthough it is true there there were still very few FF incidents from the british, but still)

What exactly is wrong? We know how many rockets w[…]

Leslie woman gets to the point. Lol. https:[…]

I'm surprised to see the genocide supporters (lik[…]

Israel-Palestinian War 2023

This is the issue. It is not changing. https://y[…]