Trenches plan to secure Baghdad

[sabra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5349398.stm

Trenches plan to secure Baghdad

All remaining ways into Baghdad would be via security checkpoints
Iraq's interior ministry has announced plans to increase security in Baghdad by digging trenches around the city, and surrounding it with checkpoints.

The plan was unveiled amid continuing violence in the capital. At least 49 bodies have been recovered from the city's streets in the past 24 hours.

A spokesman said the security plan was designed to prevent insurgents from getting into and out of Baghdad.

But correspondents say it could take months to dig trenches round the city

[ixion]

1. Trenches, Fences and Fortresses... the new 'Murikan Liberty

:puke: :cry:

[Renew Deal]

66. They're Freedom Trenches®

:hurts:

[jazzjunkysue]

68. ROFL!!! Let's serve freedom fries in the freedom trenches.

Or, how about just digging a trench from 1599 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC to 1601. Might keep us out of more trouble for 2 years.

[grytpype]

2. Total desperation.

[maddezmom]

3. ah, yes that'll fix it

:eyes: So how many people will show up dead in the months is takes to dig the ditches? And after the ditches are finished, they'll just blow up the checkpoints like they've been doing all along.

[truth2power]

4. Bwa hahahahahahahaha ha...spit my coffee all over...

:rofl: :rofl:

Somebody help me out, here...I could swear I read, some weeks ago, that they were going to build a FRIKKIN' WALL around Baghdad.

Now it's morphed into TRENCHES??? Jeezus H. Christ.

FARCE! THAT'S WHAT IT IS. FARCE! :rofl: :rofl:

[azurnoir]

5. So, now we're back to "trench" warfare?

way to go gW, you've only set military tactics back 90 or years. What next flintlocks or the more advanced Gatlin gun?

[coalition_unwilling]

41. Wouldn't that be like 500 years, a la moats around castles? (n/t)

[azurnoir]

48. Yeah it would,

but it seems like we're in regression mode anyway, it would be right in tune with the fundies too.

[Tellurian]

69. Moats are ok..I put my foot down on crocked moats though! n/t

[RoseMead]

6. All this makes me picture

1. medieval moats
2. WWI

I'm eagerly awaiting the day when they just put up giant electrified domes over the cities of Iraq. Now that will be space-age cool. :sarcasm:

[NeoConsSuck]

46. And don't forget the Trojan Horses..

[Renew Deal]

65. NO SEX THREADS!!!

:P

[Captain Hilts]

7. Worked great at the Somme! nt

[Phredicles]

8. Now there'll be lots more places to dump all those bodies

of people who've been tortured and shot in the head that keep turning up.

And the Dear Leader wonders why the Iraqis aren't more grateful. :eyes:

[HuffleClaw]

9. what a joke of a 'plan'

and hardly a sign of the 'success' bush talks about, not to mention its a plan born of desperation and folly.

[The_Casual_Observer]

10. There never needed these in Baghdad before.

What happened?

[yellowcanine]

11. Trenches???? Is this from the Onion?

[Kagemusha]

17. They did this maybe two years ago with a small village.

Even I, at my most cynical - and I can be one very cynical guy - never imagined that they'd think of applying the strategy to Bagdhad itself.

So yes, the idea has a basis in reality, but er no, applying it to Bagdhad, isn't very realistic and does seem like satire doesn't it? Irony, at least.

[central scrutinizer]

12. where are the piranhas and crocodiles?

Fill those trenches with water then plant some critters

[yellowcanine]

13. Both sides used them in Iran/Iraq war.......

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/iran_iraq_war/iran_iraq_war2.php

[stepnw1f]

14. What a Stupid Ass Waste of Money and Life

The right wing needs to be held accountable for everything in the last 6 years. They broke it, they own it for life.

[thereismore]

15. They'll just put the bodies in the trenches. Shrub's MASS GRAVES. nt

[bif]

16. Armed with trebuchets?

Let's move warfare back to the 1400s while we're at it.

[Kagemusha]

18. What's a Katyusha if not a dumbfire arcing siege weapon?

Though, they could always go back a century earlier and do like the Mongols might do. Raze the city completely. An alternative to killing everyone would be making them live in other parts of the country where they could be more easily controlled. Like, er, Stalin did to the Chechens.

It's almost as reasonable as digging trenches around a city of millions.

[Recursion]

44. And, don't forget, one with greater area than Los Angeles...

...and surrounded by terrain of priceless archaeological value. Well, I guess we can write off the archaeological stuff as having been ruined at least 2 years ago, but still. It's a physically huge city; bigger than most Americans imagine.

[KansDem]

39. Well, boiling oil shouldn't be too hard to come by there...nt

[Botany]

19. Good idea .... WW 1 1914 -1919

[Eugene]

20. This approach is working so well in Ramadi.

They plan to turn Baghdad into another open prison. Even if it does check
the Sunni insurgency, it does not stop the Shiite militias who have infiltrated
the security forces, especially the Mahdi Army which controls parts of Baghdad.

[gratuitous]

21. So this is what "victory" looks like?

A besieged fighting force, hunkered down in the capital city, protected by more armaments than the world has seen, hiding behind trenches and so insecure in their position that no one may enter or leave the city without a full inspection?

Oh yeah, that's victory baby! A few napalm-scented pine tree deodorizers, and the picture will be complete.

[tabasco]

22. Bush appointed incompetent cronies at all levels of the govt & military

We are seeing the results.

[daleo]

23. What's the point?

The city is full of opponents of the U.S. backed regime anyway.

[reprobate]

24. Nobody expects the American Inquisition.

It's finally sunk in! It's MONTY PYTHON!

The entire war on Iraq is just a years long Monty Python sketch.

[IChing]

25. Iraq to ring Baghdad with trenches

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq has said it will ring Baghdad with trenches and seal off dozens of roads leading in to the capital in a bid to restrict movements of insurgents.

"As a new security measure we will surround the city with trenches," Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP Friday.

"The entry to the capital will be permitted through 28 roads as against 21 at the moment, but at the same time we will seal off dozens of other minor roads with access to Baghdad."

He said checkpoints will be set up on the 28 roads on which access will be allowed.

A top security official told AFP that the plan was to "monitor who is coming into Baghdad and who is going out.

"This way we will have a better control of movements, including those of insurgents.">>>>>snip



http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/060915151948.b695sjj4.html

[kurth]

26. Worked like a charm in WWI. Guaranteed to work in WWIII.

Bush's Maginot Line.

[IChing]

27. The Bronze age of city states also West Berlin

West Berlin was surrounded by a wall to protect freedom and liberty.:sarcasm:

[radfringe]

28. it's NOT a trench and it's NOT a moat

it's a water park...

meanwhile.. an ocean won't protect us, but a waterpark around Baghdad will...

[geek tragedy]

29. Will they have drawbridges for Castle Baghdad?

Yeah, this isn't a fiasco or anything.

[Lochloosa]

30. East Berlin....wall it in...

[hogwyld]

31. Mr. President..

Fill in those trenches. Just doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

[bvar22]

32. This assumes that the violence ....

...is being perpetrated by shadowy, foreign terrorists, and you can keep them outside Baghdad by digging a trench.

These assholes have not realized that the insurgents ARE the Iraqi civilians. The "Insurgency" (Resistance) could NOT continue without the overwhelming support of the Iraqi civilian population. The current WAR in Iraq IS a US sponsored WAR to supress the Iraqi civilian population and shore up a US imposed Global Corporate oligarchy.

[northernsoul]

33. Why not just make it a moat and fill it with crocodiles?

Just to create a final manifestation of our retreat to the dark ages.

[mopinko]

34. trounce the archaeological record a little more,

why don't they?

[semillama]

36. Thanks for bringing that up

The words "massive trenching" and "Baghdad" brings to mind nothing but wholesale destruction of several thousand years' worth of the archaeological record - although admittedly the majority of the really ancient city should be well within the modern city limits.

Which, of course, besides having been built over for hundreds of years, was subjected to "Shock and Awe".

[mopinko]

47. ALLLLL the antiquities in that country

have pretty much been looted. it will be like the nazi loot, showing up in dribs and drabs over the next 50 years, or more. hoarders of such things do not mind keeping it in the closet till it cools off.

[Canuckistanian]

35. 'cause everyone knows there are no insurgents in Baghdad

They're all "foreign Al Qaeda fighters", right?

[eppur_se_muova]

37. Yet another "Onion moment"--it makes you wanna cry. nt

[VegasWolf]

38. Does genius think that no one will attack the workers or bomb the

trenching machinery? Guess he still has tha Mexican fence on his little brain.

[yellerpup]

40. A moat? Dig a moat? There's a new idea.

How very forward thinking. How innovative! :sarcasm:

[0007]

42. Who will receive a medal for this pregnant idea?

Capturing the objective was half the successful battle—the battle was only won if the objective was held. The attacking force would have to advance with not only the weapons required to capture a trench but also the tools—sandbags, picks and shovels, barbed wire—to fortify and defend from counter-attack. The Germans placed great emphasis on immediately counter-attacking to regain lost ground. This strategy cost them dearly in 1917 when the British started to limit their advances so as to be able to meet the anticipated counter-attack from a position of strength.

So if the terrorist don't capture the trenches they'll flood it with water

[intaglio]

43. This strategy reminds me of Stalingrad

Or Hanoi

Essentially a meat grinding machine for those inside.

Against terrorist forces? I can hear all the British, Officers and Men, shouting "Nooooooooo" FFS the IRA loved it when the Brits tried fortifying and segregating Belfast.

[skip fox]

45. Shows how we're winning. Maybe they can put drawbridges in as well.

If we go any further backwards, we'll be arming outselves with lances and sworda.

[Az_lefty]

49. what they need is a good moat...

[tanyev]

50. I fart in your general direction.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

[bhikkhu]

51. Welcome to the 21st Century...

Halliburton will probably soon have a moat-digging division, ready for immediate global dispatch and busy around the clock.

[rodeodance]

52. Iraq forces to dig trenches around Baghdad (5 US troops died Thrus)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14847580/

Iraq forces to dig trenches around Baghdad
Operation an attempt to stop insurgent infiltration

Updated: 1 hour, 13 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad and set up checkpoints along all roads leading into the city to reduce some of the violence plaguing the capital, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

To help halt that bloodshed, more U.S. troops have been shifted to Baghdad from the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, a senior U.S. commander said.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine was killed Friday in Anbar province, and an American soldier was killed Thursday evening by a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the military said. Five American soldiers died Thursday, making it an especially bloody day for U.S. forces.

[bigdarryl]

53. And the media isn't even talking about it

So much for supporting the troops.

[cspanlovr]

54. Good lord, trench warfare.

[Divernan]

57. Shades of WW One - everything old is new again!

How deep/wide does a trench have to be - maybe they can flood them with oil.

[Monkeyman]

59. They did when we were bombing

[Monkeyman]

55. We got a email from my family and Peter Laesch

They are getting ready for an all out push on Sadr City
Peter is the brother of the vet running against Hastert

[enid602]

56. moats

I heard they were sending out Ann Coulter, Barr Bush and Mary Matilyn to stock the moats. Scary stuff.

[POAS]

60. That was my thought but

your idea for moat monsters is excellent.

They don't seem satisfied with taking us back to the 19th century, let's go back to the 1500's.

Raise the draw bridge, the heathen liberals are coming.

[cspanlovr]

61. LOL, and then they'll bring in the flameproof alligators!

[Tanuki]

58. First Rule of Holes:

When you find yourself in one, stop digging.

[Joe for Clark]

62. Boy, that explains a lot to me.

Thanks for posting this.

Joe

[brentspeak]

63. You know you've done a pi$$-poor planning for an occupation

when you have to recreate the conditions for the Battle of the Somme.

[Roy]

64. This is not a trench... This is a huge pre-emtive grave. N/T

[pinniped]

67. I think they're already IN Baghdad and they don't give a shit....

about getting out.

A spokesasshole said the security plan was designed to prevent insurgents from getting into and out of Baghdad.

Damm desperados.

Why don't these inept fucks just pack up Baghdad, call Mega Movers, and move it to the moon?

That is the most secure location I can think of.

[Ouabache]

70. If the trenches are not manned, they will be breached at NIGHT

and if they are to be manned, why not just multiple rings of troops at ground level, and save the cost of digging trenches, although I suppose Halliburton will get the contract to dig them. Talk about tax money going into a hole in the ground, and it is not even a hole in the USA. This is ludicrous.

[bhikkhu]

71. Exactly. How many men to secure a 50 mile trench?

I would say it is just damned expensive and guaranteed to fail. It least in itself it is a military adventure that kills no one, but that remains to be seen.

[kskiska]

74. The Minutemen are at this moment boarding planes

to man that trench.

[Nevernose]

72. Wait. They're going to dig a moat? (n/t)

n/t

[benEzra]

73. Hmmm....Maginot Line...Berlin Wall...doesn't sound promising (n/t)

[kskiska]

75. Now they can really make use of that catapault…

to catapault more propaganda from the Green Zone to the rest of Iraq.