'They Came Here to Die' (new insurgent ambush tactics)

[Barrett808]

'They Came Here to Die'
Insurgents Hiding Under House in Western Iraq Prove Fierce in Hours-Long Fight With Marines
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 11, 2005; Page A01

JARAMI, Iraq, May 10 -- Screaming "Allahu Akbar'' to the end, the foreign fighters lay on their backs in a narrow crawl space under a house and blasted their machine guns up through the concrete floor with bullets designed to penetrate tanks. They fired at U.S. Marines, driving back wave after wave as the Americans tried to retrieve a fallen comrade.

Through Sunday night and into Monday morning, the foreign fighters battled on, their screaming voices gradually fading to just one. In the end, it took five Marine assaults, grenades, a tank firing bunker-busting artillery rounds, 500-pound bombs unleashed by an F/A-18 attack plane and a point-blank attack by a rocket launcher to quell them.

The Marines got their fallen man, suffering one more dead and at least five wounded in the process. And according to survivors of the battle, the foreign fighters near the Syrian border proved to be everything their reputation had suggested: fierce, determined and lethal to the last.

"They came here to die," said Gunnery Sgt. Chuck Hurley, commander of the team from the 1st Platoon, Lima Company, of the Marines' 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, that battled the insurgents in the one-story house in Ubaydi, about 15 miles east of the Syrian border.

"They were willing to stay in place and die with no hope," Hurley said Tuesday. "All they wanted was to take us with them.''

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051000221.html

[blindpig]

1. I guess they were cowards too.

call them what you will, they had the courage of their conviction.

If you do not respect the real abilities and qualities of your opponent you are doing yourself no favor.

[Barrett808]

2. Juan Cole calls this a recruiting drive for the jihadis

And it's going to be successful:

The US commanders expressed their happiness that the guerrillas at Ubaydi are standing and fighting, on the grounds that if they do that, they will be finished faster. I wouldn't be so happy if I were them. The jihadis are making themselves martyrs in order to give other young men a reason to fight. It is a recruitment drive. Since guerrillas have managed to kill about 14 US troops in recent days, moreover, it is a way of signalling that the US is not 10 feet tall, but is rather vulnerable. If the US has this much trouble with about 2500 foreign fighters in Iraq (and over 20,000 Iraqi ones), imagine the problems if the jihadi recruitment drive succeeds, and the foreign contingent doubles or triples. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/427d7283036b65f3ca9fb51e39a48b6b.htm

[warrens]

4. It astounds me how incredibly ignorant our military leaders are

I mean, the civilian leaders, it's just a GIVEN. But you would think the military would have experts in the culture of an enemy. Remember these idiots saying how great it would be if there was an insurgency in Iraq because it would be a roach hotel for terrorists? Gotta hand it to them, they are consistent. Consistently WRONG.

[saigon68]

3. "BRING EM ON", shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

As he dribbled his food on his bib.

[dbt]

10. More Viet Vu in Iraq Nam

A highly motivated enemy, holding a great belief in the ideology for which he fights. Remind you of anyone?

[Journeyman]

15. Yes. Years ago when we called ourselves "Minutemen". . .n/t

[saigon68]

18. YES, UNCLE HO AND HIS MERRY BAND OF DISRUPTORS

The Viet-Nam War 1946 to 1975

29 YEARS OF GRIND THEM DOWN Guerrilla Warfare.

[DireStrike]

5. A pyrrhic victory for us

It does seem that we win nearly every combat, in terms of infantry losses. Though there were 9 casualties here, and this might have been an exception depending on how bad the wounded are.

So many things are unreliable and wasteful to provide us with technological superiority, so that we can usually win the combat. Fuel for the tank and all the rounds it fired. Grenades and rockets, ammunition, shredded body armor. F-18 fuel and two bombs, both of which were completely ineffective.

Now, this case was unusual in the tactical sense, but I imagine that similar strategies are used across the conflict. Lives are often spared, at tremendous expense. But then, why don't they have armored vehicles? The only conclusion that can be drawn is that this is a terrible mess.

[bemildred]

6. Who achieved their tactical objective here?

An interesting question.

[benburch]

9. They did, clearly.

They pinned down major assets for hours.

[makhno]

7. Foreign fighters, eh

From the first paragraph on, the "foreign" moniker is attached to every mention of the fighters opposing the Marines. How does the Post's writer know that? The US chain of command is the only source for this claim, yet that fact is never openly stated.

Also note the maps included with the article - Syria is featured prominently, suggesting that that's where the "foreign" fighters came from. I mean ... come on, any more obvious and you'd think you're reading '80s Pravda: "Foreign Fighers Oppose Soviet-Afghan Socialist Brotherhood."

[tabasco]

17. You betcha. All foreign terrorists and Saddam loyalists.

They had an Army LTC on tv sounding like a broken record. Yes, he actually said this battle shows how desperate the insurgents are getting. Yawn. ZZZZZZzzzzzzz.......

[peacetalksforall]

8. So do we now have a new battle of heroes? Will those U.S. soldiers

be taken to the Rose Garden to shake hands with their president and receive a medal for valor in retrieving the body of a fallen soldier? Will the Islamist insurgents also become heroes?

What's the point of this corporate killing?

The resentment against the U.S. started with the corporations's reach and predatory practices and this country's intolerance for other religions and customs. Now, our 'feet down' in a foreign country at the demand of corporations has led to useless deaths and destruction.

Will that ground become a place of pilgrimage?

Why do humans love death and war more than peace and fair prosperity?

President purposely written with an uncapitalized p our of a lack of respect for our leader to death.

[uncle ray]

11. why did American troops have to engage them for HOURS

if they had bunker busters and 500 pound bombs? has shock and awe become don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes? why didn't they use their USUAL overuse of force earlier? this sounds like it should have been a fairly simple operation, a handful of the enemy in a single house?

[tinrobot]

13. Except there was a US marine trapped in the house

If they weren't trying to retrieve their fallen comrade, then I'm sure they would have done just that.

[daleo]

20. They say "fallen" in the blurb

Was he dead or alive?

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. More propaganda claiming the enemy is actually Syria.

And quotes from some GI no less.

[Zorra]

14. "They were willing to stay in place and die with no hope,"

Patrick Henry: "Give me liberty, or give me death"

Nathan Hale: "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country"

George W. Bush: "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
March 17, 2003

[LynnTheDem]

16. "GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH!"

And we're shocked to find out that's not just for Americans.

[Imagevision]

19. Suicide bombers are signing up faster then US. Army recruiters