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They bombed 25 targets deep inside Iraq," he said.

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rodeodance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-08-07 11:27 PM
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They bombed 25 targets deep inside Iraq," he said.


.......The Pace Quickens

In 2005, CENTAF reported using 404 bombs and missiles in Iraq. In 2006, an apparent lull (whether in lethal attacks or just in their reporting) in the first half of the year seems to have given way to a rise in deadly attacks during the second half. Only days into 2007, the U.S. military had already conducted air strikes in three nations -- Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. And in Iraq, the air war may be increasing in pace and ferocity. For example, on January 9th, the U.S. unleashed its air power on Baghdad's Haifa Street, a "mostly Sunni Arab enclave of residential buildings and shops." According to the Washington Post, "F-15 fighter jets strafed rooftops with cannons, while the Apache< helicopter>s fired Hellfire missiles." Elsewhere in Iraq that day, according to Air Force reports, F-16s strafed targets near Bayji with cannon fire, while others dropped GBU-38s on targets near Turki Village; and F-15Es provided "close-air support" to troops near Basrah.

That same evening, back in the U.S., a broadcast of Fox News Channel's "Special Report with Brit Hume" offered a brief glimpse of the air war in a story by reporter David Macdougall who was, said Hume, "embedded with the Air Force in a location we cannot identify, where not only fighter jets, but bombers roared into the air headed for other targets in Iraq." Macdougall reported that the B-1B Lancer, the long-range bomber that carries the largest payload of weapons in the Air Force was, for the first time in over a year, again being employed in combat in Iraq.

"These B-1 bombers were central to the raid. We're told they flew a ten-hour mission, and by the looks of their empty bomb bays, these planes dropped thousands of pounds of munitions. They bombed 25 targets deep inside Iraq," he said. At one of these sites, he reported, Army troops sent in after the air strike reportedly found a "command and control center, insurgent hospital, and a closet-sized room covered in blood." We may never know if that "room covered in blood" was a torture center, part of the hospital, or if it became "covered" in the same manner that caused the 280 Iraqi civilian casualties from air strikes reported in the media, and the many more that undoubtedly went unreported and ignored, last year. This is yet another facet of the air war that will remain a mystery.

The Secret Air War

While reporting on the air war has often been barely evident, except as the odd paragraph in daily round-up battle pieces from Iraq (which rely mainly on military handouts or press briefings), the gaps in our knowledge about the air war have been facilitated by the U.S. military's failure to be honest and forthcoming with both data and doctrine. In this respect, the military has been the media's enabler. .......

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/opinion/?id=19454
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izzie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-08-07 11:44 PM
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1. We hear little about this part but I bet it is a big part.
Bush is going to use anything he can to win this war. Odd as I think he did that once but he just can not seem to get the country to give up. No signing on a battle ship even if Bush likes to jump around on one. Now sending in bombers to get a few people around planting road side bombs has got to be one silly way to get these people I would think. What ever is going on in Iraq seems to be very silly for every one but the ones dead I guess. Sounds that the Bush and the DOD do not care as long as war is forever going on. I guess Bush just can not face the fact that taking over countries with the worlds greatest army just does not mean the same thing to Iraq as it does to him.Madness time.
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