Oh jeebus. We are so screwed… get us out get us out get us out….
Copter Crashes as Baghdad Push Begins – New York Times
An American CH-46 Sea Knight military helicopter crashed about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad on Tuesday, the American military said today. It is the fifth American helicopter to crash or be shot down in less than three weeks, and military officials have grown increasingly concerned that Iraqi insurgents have adapted their tactics to be much more effective against American aircraft.
Great article on this at Smirking Chimp here:
Today US forces in Iraq are in the same sinking boat the Soviets found themselves in 25 years ago. We can’t move our forces safely or quickly on the ground, so we move them by helicopter. And, when Iraqi troops get their asses in a sling – (which appears to be whenever anyone shoots back at them.) – they call in US air support to do the heavy killing for them. No US air support would mean Iraqi troops refusing to venture far from base.
Then there’s the Baghdad airport – the main lifeline into and out of that hell hole of country. Lumbering transports and troop-ladened passenger planes already have to perform corkscrew-dive bomber style landings to avoid getting hit by conventional ordinance. Such aerial dodge-ball antics don’t confuse the new Iranian-supplied Manpad missiles.
So now what? Well, for starters don’t expect many of those photo-op visits to Baghdad by US officials after the first commercial or military transport gets hit. After that the once routine task of flying in fresh US troops and flying out the exhausted and wounded troops will become a life and death crap shoot.
All of which raises the obvious question; does the Bush administration realize they are repeating the Soviet’s mistakes?
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