...I thought you'd find this interesting.
From
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54345-2003Jul27.html (you don't need to register but you need to enter M or F, birth year, and zip code to get to article) -
"As Iraqi fighters launched guerrilla strikes, the U.S. Army adopted a more nimble approach against unseen adversaries and found new ways to gather intelligence about them, according to dozens of soldiers and officers interviewed over the last week.
Thousands of suspected Iraqi fighters were detained over the six-week period, many temporarily, in hundreds of U.S. military raids, most of them conducted in the dead of night. In the expansive region north of Baghdad patrolled by the 4th Infantry Division, more than 300 Iraqi fighters were killed in combat operations, the military officials said. In the same period, U.S. forces in all of Iraq have suffered 39 combat deaths. The continuing casualties -- such as the four soldiers killed Saturday -- are the direct result of the intensified U.S. offensive, the military officials added."
As high skilled as the British personnel in N. Ireland were, they never came close to 300 vs. 39 in terms of KIA in a 6 week period. Mainly because the IRA understood guerilla warfare, operated in cells, had great OPSEC, careful target selection (to conserve force levels), etc. The Iraqis are conducting hit-and-run attacks without any such considerations and they are paying dearly for it.
Also, when we last 'spoke' I compared the motivation of the IRA with the (lack of) motivation of the average Iraqi. From the same article -
"At the beginning of June, before the U.S. offensives began, the reward for killing an American soldier was about $300, an Army officer said. Now, he said, street youths are being offered as much as $5,000 -- and are being told that if they refuse, their families will be killed, a development the officer described as a sign of reluctance among once-eager youths to take part in the strikes."
I don't think the young men recruited by the IRA were bought with cash and/or had their families threatened. From what I know, the IRA had volunteers coming to them - because they actually believed they were opressed by the U.K. The average Iraqi doesn't seem to feel the same right now about the U.S. You can also compare this to Vietnam - where diaries taken from KIA NVA soldiers often mentioned that even though they missed their families terribly, they felt it to be their patriotic duty to fight for the reunification of their homeland under a government of self-rule (poor misguided bastards).
Can you give me an email address for you 'phoenetically' on this BBS (i.e. dowding at earthlink dot net)? I don't get much internet time as of late but I have more opportunities by far to send and receive email. I could discuss things more often via email, at least for the next couple of months.
Mike/wulfie
