Hot Shots Part Deux
After the terrorists were defeated in battles in Fallujah and Tall Afar, they saw that they could not confront Iraqi or American forces in pitched battles and survive. And so they turned to IEDs -- a weapon that allows them to attack us from a safe distance, without having to face our forces in battle.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Thursday it launched its biggest air offensive in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to root out insurgents near a town where recent violence raised fears of civil war.(...)
A defense official at the Pentagon, who asked not to be named said it was a relatively large, but sought to downplay the scale of the operation. "It's not precision bombs and things like that," the official said.
Another official said it was "predominantly" a helicopter operation that involved UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and other aircraft and the insertion of ground forces.
A military statement said "Operation Swarmer" involved more than 1,500 Iraqi and U.S. troops and 200 armored vehicles targeting insurgents active near Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.
This month marks the third anniversary of the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2003, a U.S.-led coalition liberated the people of Iraq from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.
I also remain optimistic because slowly but surely our strategy is getting results. This month I'm giving a series of speeches to update the American people on that strategy. I'm discussing the progress we are making, the lessons we have learned from our experience, and how we are fixing what has not worked. This past week, I discussed the security element of our strategy. I spoke about our increasingly successful efforts to train Iraqi security forces to take the lead in the fight against the terrorists. And I described our strengthened efforts to defeat the threat of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
the inmates truly are, running the asylum.
Posted by kerry at March 18, 2006 04:55 AM