From Our Corporate Office in

From Our Corporate Office in An Najaf - StrategyPage is out with couple of excellent Top Ten lists about the war. My favorites:

4-The United States armed Saddam. This one grew over time, but when Iraq was on it's weapons spending spree from 1972 (when its oil revenue quadrupled) to 1990, the purchases were quite public and listed over $40 billion worth of arms sales. Russia was the largest supplier, with $25 billion. The US was the smallest, with $200,000. A similar myth, that the U.S. provided Iraq with chemical and biological weapons is equally off base. Iraq requested Anthrax samples from the US government, as do nations the world over, for the purpose of developing animal and human vaccines for local versions of Anthrax. Nerve gas doesn't require technical help, it's a variant of common insecticides. European nations sold Iraq the equipment to make poison gas.

...and this one:

8-The U.S. strategy for invading Iraq is a colossal failure. Hard to say, as it's less than a week since the war began and the strategy is decapitation (eliminating Saddam), not fighting thousands of Saddams thugs before getting to the Big Guy himself. Come back in a few weeks and the truth will be revealed.

The whole thing, as usual, is worth a read.

Paging Ralph Nader - The nine Marines that were killed last weekend were apparently killed when an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade hit an AAVP7A1 "Amtrac" Ampibious Armored Personnel Carrier. This vehicle was built to carry Marines ashore and across the beach under cover of the vehicle's armor; anyone who saw Saving Private Ryan can see how dangerous crossing a beach can be.

The AAVP7 is the Marines' only armored personnel carrier (APC) - they don't use the M2 Bradley, which has given Army mechanized infantry such mobility and firepower. But in order to give the First Marine Division a level of mobility comparable to the Third Infantry Division (which has M1 tanks and M2 Bradley Infantry vehicles) the Marines pressed their AAVP7s into service.

And it's all wrong for use as an APC for any reason but amphibious attack; it's armor is much lighter than the Bradley (designed to protect it from small-arms fire and artillery shrapnel, not from heavier fire), while its silhouette is extremely high, making it easier than any other APC to see and hit.

And once it's hit by a modern anti-tank weapon, or even plain old-fashioned artillery or tank rounds, it's all over.

If the reports are true, it's almost good news in a perverse way - if nine Marines were killed in one action while deployed and able to maneuver and take cover and shoot back against the Fedayeen, it'd be more than just casualties, it'd be a sign that the Fedayeen could take it to the Marines with authority. In this case, it was most likely an unlucky ambush by a crafty RPG gunner.

Unfortunately, when our Marines are "winging it" with obsolescent, mis-applied vehicles like the AAVP, things like this are more likely.

Paging Hans Blix - An Iraqi commando battalion apparently managed to destroy a couple of M1 Abrams main battle tanks over the weekend - using French hardware:

Some Pentagon officials said Wednesday that this marked the first time Abrams tanks had been destroyed on the battlefield. An Army official disputed that, saying the tanks "were not blown to bits, they were rendered immobile. They're going to be evacuated, and repaired."

On the battlefield, it was not immediately clear what kind of weapon the Iraqis used to knock out the tanks. But a senior defense official said that it was a French-made Coronet antitank missile.

Thanks, France.

Both tanks will probably be repaired and returned to action. Both crews escaped, a testament to the Abrams design.

According to the reoprt on the subject, quite a number of Iraqis were killed in the effort.

Posted by Mitch at March 27, 2003 01:43 AM