Are the insugents using a new, devestating strategy?

[Walt Starr]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/11/AR2005051101737.html

<snip>

Every member of the squad -- one of three that make up the 1st Platoon of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment -- had been killed or wounded, Marines here said. All told, the 1st Platoon -- which Hurley commands -- had sustained 60 percent casualties, demolishing it as a fighting force.

"They used to call it Lucky Lima," said Maj. Steve Lawson, commander of the company. "That turned around and bit us."

Wednesday was the fourth day of fighting in far western Iraq, as the U.S. military continued an assault that has sent more than 1,000 Marines down the ungoverned north bank of the Euphrates River in search of foreign fighters crossing the border from Syria. Of seven Marines killed so far in the operation, six came come from Lima Company's 1st Platoon.

Lima Company drew Marine reservists from across Ohio into the conflict in Iraq. Some were still too young to be bothered much by shaving, or even stubble.

<snip>

Notice that the targeted unit was a unit of reservists. The insurgents probably know that reservists and National Guard units are local in nature as opposed to active units which pool resources on a national level.

If an entire squad or even an entire platoon of active soldiers or Marines are killed, the effect is spread across a broad spectrum of the nation.

However, a squad of reservists or National Guard could be devestating to a town or small area, and a platoon would be incredibly devestating, potentially wiping out the entire contingency from a small town.

Note too, this unit is from Ohio, a contentious state that went red.

This bears observation because if a pattern of targeted units of reservists and National Guard from contentious states in the past election develops, we'll be looking at an entirely new ball game in the Iraqi Theater of Operations.

[Teaser]

1. Good question.

To answer it, we'd need to now just how penetrated the Iraqi high command is with insurgent sypathizers. As I suspect the command has >50% penetration, I'd say it's a good probability they have the intel needed to execute this strategy.

[Walt Starr]

2. They don't even need that much

All they need is a web connection and a bit of smarts.

They can identify units by the shoulder patches. find out what National Guard and reserve units are from which states by looking on the web. Find out if they've been deployed to Iraq by looking on the web. They can find out what the shoulder patches of the units look like by looking on the web.