and soon to be dead ducks all in a row. war is such a terrible waste of sperm.

As I said at 2:01, "they're toast."

[Homer]Mmmmmmm crispy duck.

/me runs off for some Thai food.

I wonder if it will ever be known who gave those Iraqi troops their marching/suicide orders

Doesn't quack like a duck, doesn't move like a duck -- must be a dead duck!

Great news. I feel bad for Iraqi soliders that are dying needlessly, but I don't want our guys to be run over by them.

Nice side effect is less chance of civilian casualties, I wonder who gave this order.

What if they loaded up the trucks, tanks with women and children?

I don't really feel too bad for Iraqi soldiers mainly because they could surrrender. I realize that its dangerous for them, but they do have a choice.

cb - Good point CB, but nothing you can do about it either way...

I thought about them maybe using human shields as well, but how will that work if we don't know about them? No way to spin they were there giving free rides to the kiddies.

Also, one word keeps popping into my head: "Bait". Don't know why, or how it could be so but it just seems like that kind of tactic. So senseless, it actually means something. We'll see.

true, would be sad if that happened but not our fault. Wonder if they were heading for Iran?

During the Desert Storm, the highway of death was one of the big factors in making the US decision makers cease combat ops. Do you think the Iraqi's are trying to recreate those conditions?

Killed by "Merkins", strung up by Iraqis, that's their choice.

"During the Desert Storm, the highway of death was one of the big factors in making the US decision makers cease combat ops. Do you think the Iraqi's are trying to recreate those conditions?"

Interesting theory.. I don't think the President will bow to that though.. Still, a very intersting theory.

cb asks:

What if they loaded up the trucks, tanks with women and children?

There'd be hundreds of dead women and children to add to the Iraqi leadership's war-crimes tab. The really sickening part is that they might just pull something like that.

I doubt it, though. They wouldn't want to lose the hardware.

Do you think the Iraqi's are trying to recreate those conditions?

If they are is a big miscalculation, it won't work now, since we have promised the Iraqi population, specially the Kurds, we
re getting rid of this guy.

We can't betray them again.

Is this the way they put obstacles in the road?

Hmm...uprising in Basra rumored. Bully boys have to fire on townspeople. Then big convoy heads out from town. Sounds like desperation rather than premeditation. (Plus, remeber the water situation in town is pretty critical.)

I am willing to bet that their calculus was something like, "Ahmed, I cannot see anything in this Allah-blessed sandstorm. Let's take this opportunity to secretly move our armor and attack the infidels!"

Alas, there is that thermal imaging technology...

Betting on thes guys being that stupid is risky business. Me thinks they might have something up their sleeves

and this may just be the entree, apparently a far larger column is also performing the same brilliantly dumb maneuver south of Baghdad.

But the Highway of Death in Desert Storm blew away Iraqi soldiers fleeing for home. If I understand the news correctly, this column was headed the other way (to an apparent dead end)towards our forces. Beats the hell out of me what they thought they were doing. D'you suppose the same thing will happen to this alleged column coming down on the MEF at Nasariyah? Hope so!

Highway of Death II?

This sonds like a job for our A-10 pilots. All I have to say is:

Happy Hunting!

Looks to me like the Basra convoy is the test of the "fight the infidel while his helos are grounded" ploy. If the Basra battle group gets cut down, the Baghdad group runs away back to base before it happens to them.

I'd be willing to bet that things got bad in Basra, so they thought they'd try to use the sandstorm as cover to dash north and join their Republican Guard brothers. They're in for a big surprise.

Another possibility is that they *had* to leave Basra, due to planned bio/chem destruction within city limits. In such a scenario I might expect them to disperse rather than concentrate during exodus, however.

Its a bold tactic to come out and fight in the sandstorm when a lot of our advantages: Helos, non SAR intelligence, CAS, long range direct fire from armor, are degraded. It seems it "paid off", relatively of course, with the attack on Najaf yesterday, that actually let them sneak up close enough to get into a fight at "point blank ranges" for the bridges. They actually "took out" M1s and M2s.

It seems they are attempting the same tactic again but the sandstorms have let up and no one is gonna miss a convoy. Its a lot different than coming out of a city in battalion strength to hit a bridge right outside the city.

Their "success" at Najaf yesterday was based on "good execution". Hopefully they are trying to repeat their "success" with larger formations all over Iraq after they are worked over by TAC air AC-130s can accept their surrender.

Desperation and impatience can cause bad decisions. Instead of the Highway of Death, this reminds me of another episode in Gulf War I. During the bombing campaign, I remember the Iraqi tanks suddenly broke loose and captured a small, unguarded town at the (Saudi?) border. The Iraqi commander was hailed as a hero, and congratulated personally by Saddam (who of course planned the operation).

In fact it was a horrible move by the commander. The town had no strategic value, and his tanks were massacred on the way there by A-10's. He left because of impatience and knowledge that he was in a "use them or lose them" situation.

My guess is that there's a commander who is taking a stab at glory, wanting to take the really remote chance at victory than wait to be defeated. Not what you'd expect from a trained, disciplined commander.

Maybe when the Iraqi forces try to defend in place they tend to get wiped out by bombing and artillery, so their commanders figure that the best way to use their armies is to attack and try to cause a few coalition casualties. Their only other choice would be to go into the cities and use human shields, but then they'd have to give up their heavy weapons. And most regular Iraqi soldiers probably don't want to fight that way anyway.

The Iraqis are extending their defensive perimeter, by trying to engage farther out from Baghdad, hoping to delay. Also, if they can push through at Najaf, they can pressure the crossing point to Nasiriyah, which is critical for bringing supplies forward.

this is darwinism at its best,
survival of the fittest.
and the eradication of the weakest
iraqs of the species if one can callthem
that