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September 14, 2004
On Airstrikes
Air Power Gains Bigger Role in Iraq
Monday September 13, 2004 9:01 PMBy ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4492507,00.html
Interesting article and in particular this:
Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute think tank, said Monday the Americans seem to believe that airstrikes in Fallujah will wear down the insurgents and buy time for U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces to prepare for a ground assault in the weeks ahead.
``But you have to wonder whether we're radicalizing the Iraqi civilian population'' in the meantime amid claims - substantiated or not - that airstrikes are killing innocent people, Thompson said.
Two observations, regardless of whether the intel is good (and I suspect it is not often very good), "precision" using explosives in urban areas strikes me as a nonsensical assertion. It's not carpet bombing, but for a country one supposedly controls, airstrikes into urban areas is a losing proposition.
Posted by The Lounsbury at September 14, 2004 11:06 AM
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Aug-Dec 2004
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