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August 05, 2005

Some Iraq Posts

Some interesting stuff out there.

Thanks to NickS, IraqNow lists some interesting stats about Iraq, most positive, some not so much.

Saudi Arabia contributes more jihadi warriors than its closest rival, Syria, by a factor of five. I think that's why Saudi security forces fight Al Qaeda so much. The object isn't to capture or kill them, so much as convince them that life is easier in Iraq. Of course, once the United States eventually leaves Iraq, these foreign fighters are going to head right back to Saudi Arabia, and be a problem for them all over again.

Another interesting tidbit:

Next time some uninformed yobsucker kvetches to you that coalition forces haven't been able to restore electricity to Baghdad, point out that currently, nationwide electricity production is actually 15 percent higher than prewar levels. (4541 Mw in July 05 compared to 3958 before the war.) Baghdad hasn't quite caught up to its prewar levels yet (I can hear Riverbend complaining from here), but you must remember that Saddam's government diverted power to Baghdad from all over the Euphrates River Valley and to loyal cities and areas, at the expense of the outlying towns.

Actually, it's all interesting.

Cake or Death, a pro-war conservative, is meanwhile beginning to fear we could actually lose the war, largely due to a failure of morale on the homefront.

Bill Roggio suggests the uptick in our boys' deaths is due to the high-impact "River War" strategy, in which our troops are pushing the insurgents into a smaller and smaller safe zone.

Not sure what it means, but anti-war liberal Democrat VonK sent me that last bit (he also sent the IraqNow link, as did NickS.).

Pointed Out By Dave From Garfield Ridge: Wolf Blitzer says an "armored-up Humvee" could have survived a massive shaped-charge bomb. Apparently clueless that the bomb in question flipped over a thirty-one ton armored LAV.

But an armored jeep? That would have withstood the blast.


posted by Ace at 12:18 PM
Comments



Re the quoted story's line, "nationwide electricity production is actually 15 percent higher than prewar levels. (4541 Mw in July 05 compared to 3958 before the war.)":

Megawatts is a measure of capacity, not production, which would be measured in megawatt-hours. It's the difference bwtween knowing the magazine capacity of your Lee-Enfield rifle and knowing how many shots you've fired. Of course, both electric capacity and output in Iraq could be up, but the numbers given don't speak to output.

Posted by: Axel Kassel on August 5, 2005 12:30 PM

Good post by Steenwyk, but did you perchance see this other one, right below it?

Man, Wolf. . . Wolf. Dude, really.

Of course, this is one of Jason Von Steenwyk's long-running pet peeves, one that I happen to strongly share.

If the press can't be bothered to learn the difference between a soldier and a Marine, a battalion and a brigade, and a Humvee and an AAV, how can anyone trust their analysis on the larger issues?

To anyone who thinks this is irrelevant minutiae, may I remind them that the media holds sports reporters to a higher standard than it does journalists on the military beat. After all, no one would care what a reporter had to say about the Super Bowl if they couldn't explain a first down to you. So tell me why the same standard doesn't apply to military matters, matters literally of life & death?

F'ing amateurs.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on August 5, 2005 12:31 PM

Belmont Club is analyzing as well: http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/

Posted by: Steve in Houston on August 5, 2005 12:57 PM

"So tell me why the same standard doesn't apply to military matters, matters literally of life & death"

Because the facts are irrelevant when the intent is not to report but to support policy positions. Fake but accurate as they say.

Posted by: BrewFan on August 5, 2005 01:04 PM

Oh the humvee could easily "survive" in a manner of speaking - like an elevator car free falling 30 stories can "survive".

This doesn't mean you won't be sponging out the contents of said humvee though.

Posted by: on August 5, 2005 03:14 PM

A shaped charge needn't penetrate an armored vehicle to do damage, either. Some are intended to cause "spalling", where the interior armor is actually superheated and liquefied, which then flies around the interior of the vehicle and kills people that way. HEAT (High Energy Anti Tank) rounds do this.

But a correctly-designed shaped charge can penetrate several inches of armor plating -- the Israelis lost a Merkava tank a year or two ago to a shaped charge placed in a roadway. The charge opened that tank like a tuna can.

Posted by: Monty on August 5, 2005 03:26 PM
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