From what I understand from reading his book, he brought the idea up to Washington, and then they did a War Game on it. After that it was put on the back burner, and forgotten about. The book is
Battle Ready and it's written by Tom Clancy.
The Marine Corps likes to keep things, especially about deployments, hush, hush, but it is public knowledge to a degree. The actual route isn't, but the end location isn't.
There is a main highway that runs East/West that goes from Baghdad to the Jordanian/Syrian border. I traveled on it many a times during my 1st tour in Iraq.
Yella02-I promise I will return to you in one piece and this will stay up until I am safely home
Quote:
I think the administration genuinely believed that Iraq had WMDs and that was the main reason for the invasion.
Genuine...
"Speak the truth, and leave immediately after"
"The urge to save Humanity is almost ALWAYS a false front for the urge to rule"
"He who knoweth things as they are and not as they are said or seem to be, he truly is wise, and is taught of God more than of men."
Thanks for the info Saint... I knew there were a bunch of roads (highways even) that went to Jordan, but I was under the impression (from news reports etc) that the ones to Syria were in serious disrepair... Not that it would matter a whole lot in a HMMWV or a tracked/semi-tracked vehicle.
I've got an abridged verision of Battle Ready on audio book but I haven't had time to listen to it juuuust yet... I'm listening to a few criminology/dactyloscopy books on CD on my iPod. Work first...
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Well from what I've traveled on that particular road, the median was destroyed, the Seabees had some fun with their Dozers and took down all the guardrails to prevent hiding spots for IEDs, but the actual road was in pretty decent condition. I'll find out when I go back next year if the roads have held up to the amount of travel and weight that the military has put on those roads.
Yella02-I promise I will return to you in one piece and this will stay up until I am safely home
We'll see...
From what little I've read about the actual condition of the roads stated they hadn't been maintained for upwards of 6 years prior to invasion.
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A lot of the roads are horrible, I'd say a good 90%, on more then a couple of occasions I was almost been ejected out of an LVS because the roads were so bad, however, the main highways were in pretty decent shape we were able to drive down any lane that we wanted and it was a pretty smooth ride. It's the back roads that are horrible. Two of our ASRs, Alternate Supply Routes, were 3 lane roads, one center asphalt lane, and two dirt lanes on either side. The dirt lanes were so bad at times that we destroyed a HMMWV jumping it across the road.
We were passing another convoy and were forced entirely onto the dirt lane, with all the dust that was thrown up by the convoy one of the rear security vehicles wasn't able to see the in front of the vehicle all that well by that time convoy speed was about 25 mph, and we had already passed the oncoming convoy. The HMMWV came up on berm that they didn't see, the only option was to gun it and hit the berm, the driver hit the berm and jumped the road. The rear right passenger was ejected breaking his arm and wrist, the driver broke his legs, and all the other passengers sustained minor injuries. The HMMWV was laying frame, from 16 inches of Ground clearance to laying frame, the Air Box was pushed up at a 90 degree angle and twisted around 180 degrees. The rear left upper A-Arm was torn out of its mount and at least 2 of the tires were running on the Run Flat. I'm sure there was a lot more wrong with the HMMWV, but this happened almost a year ago, and my memory of the incident was a little sketchy as I was more worried about setting up security then what was going on with the HMMWV.
Yella02-I promise I will return to you in one piece and this will stay up until I am safely home
Sounds like a day at the beach..
BTW, Battle Ready is a really great book.
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hope they pull out some to actually help with a US disaster
1989 Turbo Trans Am #82, 2007 Cobalt SS G85
I doubt that...
It'd be a better idea to draw NG from other states, and get the CDN rescue workers/field engineers etc that are waiting at the border their entrance visas.
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Rodimus since you know nothing about the military it would behouth you to not post derogatory comments about my chosen profession, I don't talk down on what you do, don't make the mistake of talking down on the military.
There is already talk of a Mission coming to I MEF to send Marines in support of Hurricane relief efforts. It is only in the rumor phases and the tasker may go to II MEF, but nonetheless there is still talk.
Yella02-I promise I will return to you in one piece and this will stay up until I am safely home
Saint: I don't think he was slagging the military so much as the executive branch. If he doesn't know how the military works regarding chain of command, he's not alone.
Oh.. one last thing, not to nitpick either: its <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=behoove">behoove</a>.
I'm a bloody dictionary nerd.. you can say it, I won't disagree.
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I've seen it spelled behouth, maybe my teacher didn't know how to spell it either
Yella02-I promise I will return to you in one piece and this will stay up until I am safely home
I've never heard it said/spelled that way, but then again, I know where the "u"s are supposed to go
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But you're Canadian, maybe it's the Canadian dictionary that is wrong
Yella02-I promise I will return to you in one piece and this will stay up until I am safely home
No, I speak English, not what you colonials quaintly refer to as english.
Wow... did I just say that?
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Last time i checked it was the US Armed Forces not the Iraq Armed Forces
I pay taxes, I pay your salary, I pay your bosses salary, I don't like what my money is being spent on so I'll say whatever the hell I want. I'm not talking down on your profession, I'm talking down on the governing body which commands you.
1989 Turbo Trans Am #82, 2007 Cobalt SS G85
And the US Armed Forces has a mission to accomplish. You may not like what we're being told to do, but bottom line is that we can't pull out now.
There are appx. 2,000,000 members of the military, Active Duty, National Guard, and Reservist, of that we have appx. 150,000 deployed to Iraq and about 25,000 in Afghanistan. So there are plenty of Service Members without taking them away from accomplishing the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You have no knowledge of the Operations side of what we do, you only have the knowledge of what the media reports, and the media only knows what the Pentagon tells them, which isn't always true, and is more often then not twisted around.
Yella02-I promise I will return to you in one piece and this will stay up until I am safely home
Saint: Regarding Iraq, I'm not doubting that what is happening now is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication, but the problem is that you and your comrades were/are there in the first place.
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Priorities
1. USA
2. Rest of the world
now if only the government had that little slide show
1989 Turbo Trans Am #82, 2007 Cobalt SS G85
^^^^^
I have often wondered what would happen if we pulled all of our troops back to the US and didn't help anyone else out....and I keep coming back to the same conclusion....the world would come to a screeching halt...and no matter how much you may hate it, we (the US) literaly is the world's police force...or at least a very large chunk of it.
Hrmm... I'll bite here...
I don't think calling the US the "World's Police Force" is a good thing. It implies you're imposing your morality on others. After reading Frank Zinni's book - Battle Ready, I tend to agree with his perception: You're not the world's police, but not a lot of others are stepping up to the plate.
At this point, pulling out of the many theatre's the US military is in, will guarentee the US gets visited a 9/11/01 type attack at least 2-3 more times. With Iraq, once you're in.. you're in for the long haul.
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GAM: I agree that calling ourselves that isn't the best thing, becuase like you said, it seems like were telling people how to live which isn't right...everyone has their own way to live
But also like you said, no one else is stepping up to the plate, and considering we are the only Cold War "Superpower" left, the rest of the free world seem's to be looking to us for help when things go sour.
I mean countries like Rwanda, Somalia, The Republic of the Congo, In my honest opinion, they need our morality pushed on them...since when has it been right to go out and commit mass genocide and coup every honestly elected leader. I don't care who you think you are, or what your religion tells you, un-warrented killing (like murder) is wrong.
<rant>
Also, it seems every poor and war-torn country asks for the US by name to help them out. And since the rest of the free doesn't seem to see any need to help out these countries while we have our hands full, then that means that they are gonna have to wait...like somalia...granted there was a UN mission over there...but what about now, are there any more UN peacekeepers overthere? after the Black Hawk Down incident did we leave? did the rest of the UN coalition leave? Becuase if i remember right Time had a huge article on Somalia. Where is Germany, Denmark, Norway, France, Russia...<rant again>oh wait...sorry they are too busy trying to prevent the freedom of the Chetchian people...sorry my bad</2nd rant> OYE...it just irritates me when other nations who have no problem saying, "Sounds like a great idea, GOOD LUCK" don't want to get a little dirt on their boots and a little blood on their hands. IMO the US can take care of the Middle East...europe can take on Africa...they can Live 8 themselves to Bono heaven.....</rant>
Oh, and I dont hate bono...he was just the first person that poped into my head
Well, the US is the last standing active superpower. China is still there too
Probably would have been better to make it Bob Geldoff, also.
I see what you're talking about, and frankly if I didn't think it was true, I wouldn't have said it. Iraq is a bit different.. the rest of the world was moving to more of a containment ideal because outright invasion would seriously de-stabilise the area for friend and foe alike. I think most everyone wanted to see the status quo remain. A lot of people look at the war in Iraq as being predicated on false terms, and it remains that Saddam did pull the shuffle game for a while, but heading up to invasion there was full compliance. Whether that was a ploy, or it was capitulation, we won't know for a long time if ever.
Somalia was kind of hooped from the beginning , and I'm pretty sure Saint can enlighten us... Somalia was a UN mission as well. Rwanda, IIRC there was inspectors, but no one wanted to get in on it because the area was too volatile, and terrain was unfavourable at best.
I look at it like this: The US is at a real crossroads in the international sphere: you can either keep the Empire of influence (ie, allow others to do things their own way, but generally follow the US/western hemisphere's lead), or go into an Empire of conquest mode, and then, the fall of Rome won't be nearly as spectacular.
At this point, while I have serious reservations about the political clime at the moment in the Capitol, I hope the prevailing idea becomes the influential one, not conquest. The latter has been done and undone too many times.
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Somalia was a US mission from the beginning, I MEF went in to stabilize the country and for the most part did, they treated the war lords with the respect they deserved and the war lords actually assisted General Zinni in trying to solve the problems in the country. Once the UN and the Army took over is when the trouble started, the started blaming Aidid almost exclusively and treated him like a criminal, the more they did that the more he rebeled against them causing problems, which is where the Blackhawk Down story comes in. After the Blackhawk Down incident the Clinton Administration was looking for a way out of Somalia, which is where the Marine Corps led evacuation of Somalia happened.
Yella02-I promise I will return to you in one piece and this will stay up until I am safely home
You're being optimistic, GAM. Power only breeds strife, and now that the politicians (who anyone with any politicial insight knows that are NOT out for our best intrests), have tasted it, i doubt they'd let it go so easily.
I'm calling it that it will be Rome all over again, but this time Digitally Remastered with Dolby DTX surround sound.
Goodbye Callisto & Skaši, Hello Ishara:
2022 Kia Stinger GT2 AWD
The only thing every single person from every single walk of life on earth can truly say
they have in common is that their country is run by a bunch of fargin iceholes.
