Marines forced to use dummies

[TeeYiYi]

Marines forced to use dummies

April 27, 2005


Baghdad: US marines who suffered the highest casualty rate of any unit in Iraq have revealed that they were so short of soldiers that they used cardboard dummies to fool insurgents into believing they faced more men.

Company E of the First Marine Division dressed the cutouts in shirts and placed them in observation posts to trick rebels into thinking they were manned.

More than one third of the unit's 185 troops were killed or wounded during its six-month tour last year in the insurgent stronghold in Ramadi, west of Falluja, during which it faced 26 gun battles, 90 mortar attacks and nearly 100 homemade bombs.

The deception was revealed on Monday when the marines broke the corps' code of silence to detail the extent of shortages of equipment and manpower which they blame for many of their comrades' deaths.

<snip>

More: http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/04/26/1114462041421.html?oneclick=true

TYY

[htuttle]

1. I think Gen. Custer used the same tactic...

...near the end.

[blogbear]

6. Yeah, a clean scalp averts hair loss..

[Tesha]

2. At least the cardboard cut-outs won't assassinate journalists. (NT)

[unhappycamper]

3. If you fly a C-5 into Andrews AFB, I know where you can get a good supply

of dummies. A whole town of them.

[MADem]

4. There's a pile of them in DC

...that could be deployed. They go under the term the "majority party."

[Burma Jones]

5. Someone saw the Seven Samurai............n/t

[0007]

10. BTW an excellent film.....n/t

[Ian David]

19. And don't forget Blazing Saddles!

You go to war with the army you have... unless, of course, you make a new army out of cardboard.




Back at Rock Ridge, Bart realizes that they're in trouble because they left out the people - however, they still have half an hour to manufacture people: "We forgot one little detail...We just made a perfect copy of Rock Ridge. Now all we got to do is make perfect copies of ourselves...we got to start workin' fast. Now you men start workin' on the dummies." To slow down Taggart's gang "to a crawl," Jim, Mongo, and Bart set up a toll booth outside of the fake town with a red and white striped gate crossing, and a sign which reads: "Gov. William J. Le Petomane Thruway. Toll 10 cents." It even has an Exact Change Lane, but none of the gang have dimes, so Taggart orders: "Has anybody got a dime? Somebody's gotta go back and get a shitload of dimes." Each one of the riders waits patiently as they proceed through the booth - one at a time. Of course, neither Taggart or his men notice that the toll booth is in the middle of the expansive desert and that they could easily ride around the gate crossing.

The gang is fooled by the cardboard cutouts of the townspeople which are positioned on the streets of the duplicated town. As Taggart's gang rides through the town, Bart plunges down on a dynamite detonator while warning:

More:
http://www.filmsite.org/blaz2.html

[Solly Mack]

7. I think I'll call them "Rummies Dummies"

[shoelace414]

8. this has to be Bill Clinton's fault.. somehow

[TeeYiYi]

23. Clenis Cutouts? Naw. How about DimSon Dummies . . .

. . . or PNAC Puppets; or Rove Ringers. Talk about your Straw Men. :eyes:

TYY

[Benhurst]

9. I knew enlistments were down; but this is pathetic. Time to leave. NOW!

[shoelace414]

12. Didn't you see their purple fingers?

:sarcasm:

[goddess40]

11. just like the White House nt

[Strawman]

13. oh, I thought maybe * was making up for all that AWOL time

when you said they were using dummies.

[Ilsa]

14. So Rummie has drafted an army of blowup dolls?

How funny. At least he doesn't have to pay them sign on bonuses, but once again. our soldiers are left without proper support.

[bemildred]

15. Those are high casulalty rates, 30% in six months. nt

[Selteri]

16. This is insane

We didn't send enough troops in.

We've abused the Iraqi people.

And now

We are putting up fake men to cover blind spots.

This isn't just a problem, this is a massive massive problem.

[NYC]

26. Rumsfeld defends use of smaller sized force in Iraq.

...US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld voiced exasperation Wednesday over criticism that the United States committed too few troops to stabilize Iraq against the advice of his former army chief of staff.

Rumsfeld said his top commanders recommended that the smaller sized force used in Iraq, and that was the number of troops the administration went with.

"So I must say I am tired of the Shinseki argument being bandied about day after day in the press," Rumsfeld told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee...

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=41095

[Sabriel]

17. There's another advantage to using cardboard cutouts

You get to drive your Abrahms in the HOV lanes....

[LiberallyInclined]

18. trying to whip up public support for the upcoming draft.

is the impression i get from the story.

[gratuitous]

20. All the news that's fit to print

In Australia. I wonder if any stateside news outlet will have the temerity to pick up this story?

[Pinboy]

24. New York Times covered this 2 days ago (link)...

April 25, 2005
Marines From Iraq Sound Off About Want of Armor and Men

http://nytimes.com/2005/04/25/international/middleeast/25marines.html?hp&ex=1114401600&en=27af79ca337a2ec9&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[TahitiNut]

21. I'll bet they're all on the Halliburton payroll, too.

:eyes:

[bemildred]

22. Now if we could just use cardboard Iraqis this would all be much cleaner.

[tabasco]

25. The dummies represent the millions of young republicans ...

too cowardly to join the service to fight in the war they support.