Great job, guys!

As an examle, I was looking at a slideshow in the New York Times of the 3ID taking the airport. I was very impressed with the way it showed them moving in the building. Those troops are really, really, good. Their tactical movements were as good as I have ever seen. Every single one of them know exactly what they were doing, even the youngest little mosquito wing PV-2, who couldn't have been more than 6 months out of basic training.

Overall they have done very well. But it is alarming how many "blue-on-blue" incidents we have seen. The latest was with the bombing of a allied and kurdish troops in a car train in northern Iraq.

But overall I agree, they have done very well.

they haven't taken the airport, saddams henchmen told us that. hehehe. just kidding

it does suck about the friendly fire incidents. they are saying that the pilots main worry in the skys above iraq is hitting other planes, not anti-aircraft fire.

its better our guys accidentally hitting our guys than them being pow's and tortured. i wish both could be avoided...

Not alarming at all. Esp not compared to past wars. Sad? yes. Alarming, not really.

The leadership - all the way to the top - has been doing an exemplary job as well.

In such a large, complex operation, you cannot have one (exemplary soldiers, field commanders) without the other.

I will second this - In its entirety.

Blue on blues are sad, yes, but when put into perspective with the number of soldiers, the number of missions, the number of sorties, etc., the count of these tragedies is pretty small -- and somewhat impressive.

My kudos to our troops, too -- the US flag has been proudly flying (right side up) from the front of our house since day two of the war.

Maury

*cough* U.S. Mistakenly Hits Kurd Convoy; 18 Die

*cough*, *cough* One boy's war... bathed in blood of his family
April 6: His father. His mother. Two sisters. A brother. And an uncle. All dead. That was the price of war for 15-year-old Omar.

March 28

Number of casualties: one

Circumstances: One soldier was killed in a 'friendly fire' incident after his armoured vehicle was fired upon by an American A-10 Thunderbolt Tankbuster.

Name released by MOD: Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull

March 25

Number of casualties: two
Circumstances: "Friendly fire" attack on a Challenger tank.
Names released by MOD: Corporal Stephen John Allbutt, from Stoke-on-Trent; Trooper David Jeffrey Clarke, from Littleworth, Staffordshire.

March 23

Number of casualties: four
Circumstances: An RAF pilot and navigator were killed after their Tornado was struck by a US patriot missile. Two Desert Rats were killed after their military vehicle was attacked by Iraqi troops in southern Iraq.
Names released by MOD: Flight Lieutenant Kevin Barry Main, Pilot, 9 Squadron; Flight Lieutenant David Rhys Williams, Navigator, 9 Squadron.

March 25

Number of casualties: two
Circumstances: "Friendly fire" attack on a Challenger tank.
Names released by MOD: Corporal Stephen John Allbutt, from Stoke-on-Trent; Trooper David Jeffrey Clarke, from Littleworth, Staffordshire.

March 23

A disgruntled US soldier killed another US soldier in Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait by throwing a grenade into his army barracks.

March 24

Number of casualties: six
Circumstances: One marine was killed by the accidental discharge of a .50 cal machine gun in southern Iraq.


Iraqi civilians killed: 430-540 Source: Iraqbodycount.org


Yeah.. Your boys are doing just great

You do realize that those numbers are unprecedentedly low considering what the troops are accomplishing, don't you? Especially when you throw in the Iraqi military wearing plain clothes, suicide attacks, and using human shields.

If anyone told me that there would be less than thousands of allied casualties, and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties, I would have called them idealistic dreamers.

The troops, as a whole, really are showing a remarkable level of calmness and restraint, all things considered. I'll grant that there are exceptions, like that idiot in the A10, the soldier who fragged his superior officers, and the frustration of the marines early on in Nasiriya, but these incidents are the exception in this war. A fact that I find remarkable.

BlackGriffen

I wish you guys could be in Baghdad to see just how well your troops are doing.

I agree. (Basically, I'll sign onto Lerkfish's post above.)

You do realize that those who consider these numbers high probably think that they'd be far lower if troops weren't over there in the first place?

I just pray that my friend's husband (3rd Infantry division) comes home in one piece eventually.

-s*

6 April: Ali Ismaeel Abbas, 12, was asleep when a missile obliterated his home and most of his family, leaving him orphaned, badly burned and without arms, according to a Reuters report. The boy's father, pregnant mother, brother, aunt, three cousins and three other relatives were killed in night-time missile strikes on their house in Diala Bridge district east of Baghdad.

31 March: A US Apache helicopter reportedly fired on and destroyed a pickup truck in the region of al-Haidariya near al-Hilla. The sole survivor, Razeq al-Kadhem al-Khafaji, told an AFP journalist how 15 members of his family were killed in the attack. He said the family was fleeing fierce fighting in al-Nasiriya, further south, when their truck was blown up. Sitting among the 15 coffins at the local hospital, he said he had lost his wife, six children, his father, his mother, his three brothers and their wives. The circumstances of the attack have not been clarified to AI's knowledge.

31 March: Soldiers with the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division killed seven women and children when they opened fire on an unidentified four-wheel drive vehicle as it approached a US checkpoint near al-Najaf. According to a Pentagon spokesman, initial reports indicated that "the soldiers responded in accordance with the rules of engagement to protect themselves". However, this does not appear to be consistent with the version reported in the Washington Post, which indicated that the officer in command at the scene believed at the time that no warning shots were fired. It asserts that the officer roared at the platoon leader, "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!" The US authorities said they were investigating the incident.

28 March: A shattering explosion reportedly killed at least 62 people in a market in Baghdad's poor al-Shu'la neighbourhood. A distraught mother, Sumaya' Abed, said that three of her sons had been killed by pieces of shrapnel that cut through their chests and heads. The youngest was just 11 years old. Both the US and UK governments publicly suggested that the explosion was "probably" caused by an ageing Iraqi anti-aircraft missile. However, according to the Independent newspaper, the remains of a serial number of a missile were found at the scene, identifying it as one manufactured in Texas, the USA, by Raytheon, the world's biggest producer of "smart armaments", and sold to the US Navy. The missile is believed to have been either a HARM (High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile) device, or a Paveway laser-guided bomb. Although the US authorities acknowledged that one of their jets fired at least one missile in the area that day, an official US source claimed that the shrapnel could have been planted at the scene by Iraqi officials. AI believes that in such disputed circumstances independent investigation is vital.

23 March: Five Syrian nationals were killed and a further 10 were hurt when a US missile hit a bus in Rutba, western Iraq, as it was returning to Syria. A US military spokesman admitted that a US missile had hit the bus and said that the real target was a bridge. It is unclear why the bridge was attacked and why it could not have been attacked at a time when there was less likely to be civilian traffic.

"The war has reportedly killed and wounded thousands of Iraqi civilians"

BBC NEWS

Yes yes, let us all applaud the efficiency and professionalism of these highly trained killing machines! Truly a marvel! If only all issues of globalization could be solved with such precise surgical killing, the world would be perfect!.. yea...

Yay for those who are good at killing other humans. Eh?

I guess we could just leave Iraq and wait until the bastard decides to authorize the killing another 20 or 30 THOUSAND of his own people.

Or, we could just say "screw 'em" and let him do whatever he wants to "his own" people.



Maury

The honorable Soldiers of our Allies have done a GREAT JOB!!!!

You talkin' to me? Well?

I'm talking to anyone whose foot fits the shoe.

Maury

I have to agree. I didn't want this war because I thought we could accomplish our goals by other means. The potential for disaster made it a risky proposition.

That said, this thing has gone amazingly well, all things considered. Civilian casualties are surprisingly low considering that the bulk of the fighting was in dense urban areas and against guerilla fighters intent on drawing coalition forces into populated areas.

If the worst case scenarios had played out (rather than it going this well) we might as well have packed up and gone home after the war. Our chances and playing a role in shaping post-Ba'ath Iraq would have been zero. In fact, we probably would have facilitated a resurgence of Ba'ath support or some other equally totalitarian system.

I think we should be thanking our lucky stars that things have worked out as they have. That's not to say it's merely luck (although I think that plays a part), it's largely due to the professionalism and expertise of the military from top to bottom.

Even when the early plan faced total surprises, they adapted to it and continued with a surprisingly surgical operation.

War is hell and I wish we had worked harder at avoiding it. But that doesn't mean I'm not happy as hell that things have gone this well. A massively bloody war of attrition or Stalingrad-style fighting in Bagdad would have benefited no one. I refuse to buy into the thinking that a bloody war would be good for opposition politics at home. I could never be that partisan to wish for that kind of thing.

hey all you morons to realize 90,000 where dying each year right? yeah its good to come up with all these stats sitting at your nice pretty macs. look at it from a different view.

there is a larger picture.

And you're missing it.

enlighten me, then.

I prefer to continue to watch your arguments self-destruct.

in what way? My arguments still stand firm and strong.

I won't keep repeating them just because you're too obtuse to accept reality.

the fact is that our place in global policy has irrevocably shifted into a new norm: that of preventively attacking regimes we unilaterally deem a threat.
We are already adding more countries to that list: North Korea, Syria, Iran....and the list goes on.

That is the much larger picture here than Iraqi freedom.

I hope I'm wrong, I hope the US backs off and allows Iraq to self-govern. But if any part of the resulting government ends up being placed there or forced there by the US, from Iraqi expatriots in this country or from within Iraq who are western-palatable vs. a truly self-ordained government, then we will have committed an emasculation of a people and kept them as lap-dogs because it makes us more comfortable and its in our own self-interests. That is different from being liberators, that is being handlers.

Uhu. Pickin a fight then.

zim, I've already addressed this quote out of context, or are you going to keep this personal vendetta against me going in every thread?

You really don't want me to go back and start quoting everything you've said out of context and in a negative light, do you? I don't have that kind of time, and you wouldn't like the result.