Why didn't the British Generals say anything sooner?

by **The Colonel** on Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:22 pm

I was unaware of that, I did hear something about it a long time ago, but it was very vague.

As you can probably see, no punishment was justified in that case.

by **myron myron** on Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:27 pm

If a British General gave you the order Clark gave Jackson whilst you were a British Colonel commanding troops in Kosovo, would you have refused to follow the order?

by **Noliving** on Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:27 am

Lena wrote:But he skipped Bagdad where it's not safe

Ya your right, he skipped that and went to a place the media considers the most dangerous place in all of iraq, he went to the heart of the sunni death triangle. He went to a place considered far more dangerous by the media I mean before the anbar awakening counsel that province he was in was the hq for al-qaeda. Interesting choice that he would go there unless of course progress is being made and there have basically been zero attacks against US forces in the majority of that area. Maybe the reason why he skipped baghdad was to highlight/showcase the progress US forces are making in that area of iraq.

Lena wrote:Also he got a whole lot LESS friendly welcome from the poor soldiers trapped there

How so? I have yet to find anything that suggests he got the cold shoulder from the soldiers.

I would like to see a news article on this.

by **The Colonel** on Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:47 pm

myron myron wrote:If a British General gave you the order Clark gave Jackson whilst you were a British Colonel commanding troops in Kosovo, would you have refused to follow the order?

Yes I would have, for simple reasons.

- We were not at war with Russia,
- We would not have been fired upon by them previously to warrant such action.

In such case, I would have had to contact the Secretary of State for Defence for his approval.

by **Lena** on Wed Sep 05, 2007 5:17 pm

Noliving wrote:
Lena wrote:But he skipped Bagdad where it's not safe

Ya your right, he skipped that and went to a place the media considers the most dangerous place in all of iraq, he went to the heart of the sunni death triangle. He went to a place considered far more dangerous by the media I mean before the anbar awakening counsel that province he was in was the hq for al-qaeda. Interesting choice that he would go there unless of course progress is being made and there have basically been zero attacks against US forces in the majority of that area. Maybe the reason why he skipped baghdad was to highlight/showcase the progress US forces are making in that area of iraq.

Lena wrote:Also he got a whole lot LESS friendly welcome from the poor soldiers trapped there

How so? I have yet to find anything that suggests he got the cold shoulder from the soldiers.

I would like to see a news article on this.

Wrong again our self -proclaimed militairy expert ..............

litle georgey was in no danger , hard to belive the secret service wud let him go anyhwere there was the slightest risk of gettiing hurt and ofcourse that phony is no tough guy who'd be willing to face any real danger . They said he was at base in the desert hundreds of miles away from any big city and in addition to hundreds of bodyguards there are supposed to be something like 50, 000 soldeirs in Anbar province ..................

I'm a stone cold coward but I'd go to any remote base in the desert with no one around if you send along hundreds of bodyguards and 50,000 soldiers ................ :lol:

The soldiers were polite as they have to be but no joy at seeing him and like most people there lacking any enthusiasm for the war ...............He's not too popular with either of the ground forces . His' guts' but there blood , too many combat rotations , and no end in sight . :roll:

More then one commentator said he didn't go to Baghdad since there's no real governemnt there and having one not his 'surge' is the key to victory and the place is too dangerous.......................

Maybe next to show of the sheep-in-wolves clothing can go to some little island in the Persian gulf and say we're winning ................ :lol:

by **Noliving** on Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:01 pm

Lena wrote:

Wrong again our self -proclaimed militairy expert ..............

litle georgey was in no danger , hard to belive the secret service wud let him go anyhwere there was the slightest risk of gettiing hurt and ofcourse that phony is no tough guy who'd be willing to face any real danger .

Secret service can't stop him from going anywhere they are just there to protect the president. They can't stop him.

Lena wrote:They said he was at base in the desert hundreds of miles away from any big city and in addition to hundreds of bodyguards there are supposed to be something like 50, 000 soldeirs in Anbar province ..................

al asad airbase is hardly isolated in the middle of no where. Al-Asad is a sprawling base - the second-largest air base in Iraq, 180km west of Baghdad that is about 120 miles away from baghdad. In fact fallujah is only about an hour away from that air base, Ramadi which is the capital of the province is even closer then fallujah and then haditha is just north of it. So the answer is no it is not in the middle of no where in fact it is basically an hour drive away from what used to be in 2004 the capital of the inurgency(fallujah).

Here is a map of all of the major cities near al-asad airbase so ya nice try lena about al asad airbase being in the middle of no where.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NaveaMap.JPG

Also lena part of the surge plan was to send 4,000 troops to al-anbar not 50,000. the amount of troops before that in 2006 was around 3,500 and al anbar was written off as completely irrecoverable from insurgents. That would make the total us troops in alanbar at 7,500 if they maintained last years troop levels in a province they felt was a completel lost.

Lena wrote:The soldiers were polite as they have to be but no joy at seeing him and like most people there lacking any enthusiasm for the war ...............He's not too popular with either of the ground forces . His' guts' but there blood , too many combat rotations , and no end in sight .

Too bad this is nothing more then your opinion. I love though how you like to claim that your opinion is fact. How about the fact that soldiers confronted rumsfield about the armored humvess. They are not just being polite to these people. They are not afraid of speaking there mind to president, secretary of state/defense etc.

Is that why the associated press reported that the president got cheers/hoorahs by the troops was being nice?

Heck this is what one of cobra pilots told bush

"The president stopped at a small building where a Marine Cobra pilot briefed him about the positives and negatives of current troop rotations. He told the president that troops were not getting enough time at home and did not have enough time for training.

"Morale?" asked Bush. "How's morale?"

"Very high, sir," the pilot, Capt. Lee Hemming, said.

Here is something else too "Bush received a "hoorah" when he said he would not base his deployment decision on "nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results in the media."

So the answer is no, because of the associated press article, they are not just being nice to him. The point being is that he didn't get the cold shoulder as you claim.

Lena wrote:More then one commentator said he didn't go to Baghdad since there's no real governemnt there and having one not his 'surge' is the key to victory and the place is too dangerous.......................

Maybe next to show of the sheep-in-wolves clothing can go to some little island in the Persian gulf and say we're winning ................

Really lena how about you name the commentator, how about just the first name and then the station. Because it is quite obvious that the reason why he went to al anbar which is basically the heart of the sunni death triangle and about an hour away from fallujah was to show that progress was being made and what better way to do that then to arrive in the heart of enemy territory or what was once considered the heart of enemy territory.

Heck lena he even met with some of the tribal leaders that are also leaders of some of the insurgents.

So um ya going to a province that is written off as completely lost to us soldiers in 2006 to now being the most peaceful with out having a causalties weeks at a time, in fact if I read the casualty reports correctly there hasn't been one in about 6 weeks in that province to now having the president now visitng that province and only being an hours drive away from fallujah and ramadi just shows you how much progress has been made in that province.

by **Lena** on Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:50 pm

Didn't know you were also a expert onthe secret service............. :lol:

Al Anbar province is a huge desert with only about 1% of all Iraqis and with all the people who've fled maybe even less ....................

NPR said there were 50,000 soldiers less then 2 hours away from little georgey and he was at a highly fortified air base where he was more then a little safe ...............

Morale high ? Ofcourse any soldier wud say that , who wants to see there career ruined or spend time stationed on some snowy island off Alaska ?

Still no end to sunni v. shia fighting , no real governement in Iraq , and no local army to take over .

The war's lost .