GIs at Iraqi outposts seek safety in fortifications

[bemildred]

Source: WaPo via MSNBC

BAGHDAD - Nearly three months after the U.S. military launched a new strategy to safeguard Baghdad's population by pushing American and Iraqi forces deeper into the city's neighborhoods, defending their small outposts is increasingly requiring heavy bulwarks reminiscent of the fortress-like bases that the U.S. troops left behind.

To guard against bombs, mortar fire and other threats, U.S. commanders are adding fortifications to the outposts, setting them farther back from traffic and arming them with antitank weapons capable of stopping suicide bombers driving armored vehicles. U.S. troops maintain the advantage of living in the neighborhoods they are asked to protect, but the need to safeguard themselves from attack means more walls between them and civilians.

At a moonlit outpost on the edge of Baghdad's Sadr City one night last week, 1st Sgt. Donald Knapp balanced himself on a concrete barrier suspended by a crane and slowly guided a heavy slab into position. It was 3 a.m., and Knapp and a few other soldiers were working through the night to fortify their camp.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18543664/

[uppityperson]

1. So they are spreading out and having to make fortifications there?

And they can't spread out really far or actually get out among the people much because they must fortify themselves? Well.

[Drum]

2. FUBAR. nt

[bemildred]

6. FUBAR indeed.

Seige warfare, it sounded like to me.

[Bigmack]

3. This is a disaster in the making....

At first, the Iraqi insurgency didn't impress anyone with their learning curve. Times have changed. They learn fast and I have no doubt that every one of these mini-Alamos is under constant observation, in order to figure schedule and patterns. I'll bet the opposition is setting up aiming stakes and fields of fire and sniper nests.

How long before one of these death-traps is overrun and captured?

Maybe that's the Plan.... video of captured Americans abused by the Iraqis to heat up the Murikans and make them want to stay and punish everybody.

[mediaman007]

4. Another "Blackhawk Down" scenario!

[Drum]

12. ...or 20. nt

[IndianaGreen]

5. This was Petraeus idea, to put the troops among the population

undefended. This surge was a hare-brained idea to begin with, a pipe dream by an ambitious young general, that was bought by a desperate delusional President.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. so now our light, mobile, high speed army has to bunker down?

I thought we fought that war in WWI.

jesus effing xrist on a stick. Maginot Line, here we come.

[PurityOfEssence]

10. Stalingrad comes to mind, too.

Here we have elite mechanized infantry fighting street-to-street combat, just like the
Germans did.

There are many differences though: one is that it's not a fight against a formal army and another is that it's being done in a functioning city, not one that's essentially abandoned.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. oh yeah? functioning? not when we get through with it.

Stalingrad is a good example.

I wonder how long for these minibases become traps for the US.

[Toots]

14. WWI was a real war with real enemy soldiers

This is another thing entirely. The whole damn country is against the USA, women, children and pets. They can not move about among the people because the people hate us. Unlike in Vietnam where the cities were completely safe and Americans were not even allowed to carry weapons because there was no need and the people actually liked Americans.

[TheLastMohican]

8. What stops the Iraqis?

What stops the Iraqis to wait out when the "kill 'n destroy" party leaves the fortification and then overrun the remaining guys at the blockpost? Happened so many times in Chechnya and it looks like the chechens are pouring into Iraq in numbers as the learning curve of insurgent attacks is getting better.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. All we have done is made ourselves better targets.

let's see. Chlorine gas is now being used in some weapons against the Kurds. How long before chlorine bombs rain down on these small "protected" bases, with our boys and girls trapped inside?

[Barrett808]

11. Wow, actual Crusaders' fortresses

Medieval warfare meets the 21st century.