Reuters: U.S. Says Has Rushed Tanks to Iraq to End Violence

[FlashHarry]

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - The U.S. military has rushed more tanks and other armored vehicles to Iraq (news - web sites) after requests from commanders in the bloodiest month for American troops since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was toppled.


"That armor is either here now or is arriving as we speak. So those requests were quickly filled," U.S. Marine Corps Major General John Sattler told reporters at the Pentagon (news - web sites) by phone from the Gulf state of Qatar on Wednesday.



Sattler said the requests were made by commanders battling to stamp out guerrilla attacks in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" north and west of Baghdad, including the flashpoint city of Falluja where Marines launched new air and ground attacks.



As U.S. helicopter gunships and jet aircraft pounded several districts across Falluja, west of Baghdad, President Bush (news - web sites) said in Washington: "Our military commanders will take whatever actions necessary to secure (the city)."

More here

[FlashHarry]

1. Tanks to "end violence"

Kind of like having to "destroy a village in order to save it?" Hmm...

[boxster]

2. That was my first thought.

Peace through superior firepower.

[maddezmom]

4. now the headline reads: U.S. Says Has Rushed Tanks to Iraq to Crush Rebels

WTF?

[belladonna]

6. Appears they told the truth for once without actually meaning to, huh? N/T

[FlashHarry]

7. So it has. Perhaps somebody sensed the irony...

[Just Me]

9. And to think, there are those who don't believe the media is "controlled".

Geez,...I guess 1984 really does translate to 2004.

Un-freakin-believable.

Maybe, I am from another planet,...Mars, Venus, Pluto?

[daleo]

5. More whiskey

Will sober everyone up.

[PfcHammer]

12. typical, savage murkans

[0rganism]

25. These are Peace Tanks, filled to the brim with LOVE!

We wouldn't ever do anything to hurt our newly-liberated Iraqi friends.

[Jacobin]

3. Gee, when are they gonna start dropping more bombs to

continue the ceasefire?

Oh, never mind. they did that today

[Just Me]

10. Actually, they dropped bombs to show a ceasefire,...yesterday,...

,...and throughout today.

BUT,...go back to sleep. Shop at Wal-Mart. Watch "reality TV" programs. Concentrate on your image. Keep the opaque curtains up so you can "feel" safe.

[David__77]

8. Everyone with a gun, tank, missiles or bomb wants to "end violence."

They want to "end violence" on their terms by disarming their enemy. This statement about tanks for peace is interesting on several levels.

[FlashHarry]

11. By the way, I heard the Army needs its Howitzers back...

...from a ski resort out West, which was using them to cause controlled avalanches. Talk about stretched thin! Next, they'll be taking Sherman tanks out of museums!

[koopie57]

13. tonight I read

1. "Reuters: U.S. Says Has Rushed Tanks to Iraq to End Violence"
2. A conservative group filed an ethics complaint Wednesday against Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., over the contents of computer memos taken from Democrats' computers by former GOP aides.
3. Michigan pays its workers too well

Who would have thought things would ever get so goofy. And these republicans do it all with a straight face!

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[mike1963]

15. Once upon a time, hope sprung eternal. So they said...

What's random pi? 3.1798345849398342103903?
;-)

Welcome to DU

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[daleo]

17. Pi isn't random, although it is transcendental

It can be calculated to any desired precision, but it can never be precisely determined. If it was random, the calculation would not be repeatable to any desired precision.

Also, the only way tanks could save lives, is if they were to "shorten a war" in a similar sense that was spoken of during WWII. I doubt whether any military tactic except withdrawal can shorten this war, as it is a war of occupation.

Unless by saving lives, you only mean American lives.

[mike1963]

20. Actually, it's considered "irrational" rather than "transcendental"...

I have a file (large) with it calculated to 200 billion decimal places,
but that may be outdated...but of course I was just having a bit of fun at "randompi"'s expense as I'm sure he/she appreciated. ;-)

To the extent our current endeavors in Iraq can be characterised as a "war", the only conceivable "end" consists of either a declaration of 'victory' which is impossible or 'defeat' which is unthinkable. A rather nice quandary, eh? A retrospective Catch-22, as it were.

[daleo]

21. Actually, I believe it is transcendental, although that wasn't established

until the late 19th century (1882, proven by Linderman). I don't think it is a trivial proof, though.

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/trans.html

Transcendental numbers are quite fascinating. For all practical purposes, nearly every number that exists is transcendental (Cantor gave a nice proof of this), yet we only actually know the identity of a few.

As for this war, it is certainly irrational, but also all too real.

In a sense RandomPi had a point, in that I don't think you can calculate the nth value of pi without having worked out the (n-1)th value, so there is a kind of randomness there (I think, but I could be wrong).

[bemildred]

27. Pi is real, irrational, and transcendental.

Transcendentals are distinguished by not being the
root of any (real) polynomial, which would make it
algebraic, if it was. Irrationals are algebraic or
transcendental, and there are far more transcendentals
than algebraic numbers, but most of them don't seem
all that interesting so far. But I don't keep up.

[burrowowl]

23. Welcome to Du!

Watch out for surds!

[leesa]

18. Oh yeah, that'll help the situation. Maybe they can run over the Iraqis

like the Israelis run over the Palestinians and protestors.

[happyslug]

19. The Armor is arriving as we speak??????

From where and How? A M1 tank weighs over 60 tons, you ship it by SHIP, TRAIN OR TRUCK. Given that the tanks are in the US or Europe we can rule out truck and train. How can we SHIP a tank overnight????

Now we can fly the tank over in a C5A (or the smaller C17), one per plane (and we only have 70 C5As to do this with). Given that C5A are generally reserved for high priority loads how bad is the situation that we have to FLY in tanks (and than not that many). It is about a 3 day flight from the US to Iraq and Back.

Now the C17 can carry a M1, no other support just the tank AND THAN FOR A REDUCED DISTANCE FOR THE PLANE IS MAXED OUT. I do not see the tanks being transported by the C-17, possible, but only for a very short distance. The C-17 was designed to carry Cargo on short landing strips that the C5 could not use. It acheived this ability by cutting don on endurance compared to the C5, thus in my opinion these tanks are being transported by C5 (if being air transported AT ALL).

Remember these planes are also being used to supply our troops with OTHER high priorty items for example Tires (Which were flown in this month do to the high lost of tires to terrain and enemy action).

Something about this does NOT make sense (Or should I say someone is LYING).

Information on the C5:
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-5.htm

Information on the C17 (The next biggest Transport max transport at 170,900 pounds))
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-17.htm

Information on the M1 Tank (67.8 Tons or 135,600 Pounds)
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-5.htm

[DS1]

22. Maritime PrePositioning Ships

basically ships that float around waiting to unload some land-based firepower. There's also the oft-used option of renting that big Russian Cargo plane that can carry a hell of a lot more than anything in the Air Force.

[daleo]

24. Perhaps they are using Purolater or Fedex

If it has to be there overnight. Rummy loves privatizing things.

[cambie]

28. Privatizing

is just what they do; the AN124 fleet has been busy. This link has some numbers and some ranting. Near the end the “Peace for the Holy land” is good, an example of what these nutters dream up while unsupervised.
http://www.thepresidency.org/pubs/studentpub/NATOResponseForce.pdf

[newyawker99]

29. Hi cambie!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

26. Bombing to promote peace.

Tanks to stop violence.