thedrifter
12-17-05, 06:37 PM
Minimizing Momentum: The Senate’s Sedition
December 17, 2005
by Bob Newman
Standing in the northern Saudi Arabian desert looking at the inferno of 700+ burning oil wells, I wondered about our attack, which was to come in just a couple of hours. Our plan called for the 2nd Marine Division to punch holes through the berm of sand dividing Saudi Arabia from Kuwait, blow lanes through the minefields and obstacle belts the Iraqi army had built all along the border, and assault the fortified Iraqi positions with everything we had.
Once in the attack, there would be nowhere to take cover in the seemingly endless and almost featureless desert. The fight would be on and I felt pretty good about it, given what I knew. And what I knew was that there was no way in hell Saddam’s army was going to defeat the Corps. That knowledge, added to the details of our warfighting skills and battle plan, assured us of victory.
As we would be on the offensive, a key factor our plans were built upon had to do with us knowing we must avoid doing what the enemy wanted us to do. And of all the things the enemy wanted us to do, what they wanted most was for the Marines to lose their momentum in the attack; momentum being one of the fundamentals of the offense. If we lost our momentum in the wide-open desert, Iraqi artillery, especially their South African-made G-5 howitzers, could fix us in place and, with the thick smoke from the burning wells seriously reducing our ability to employ close-air support, create a killing field the likes of which had not been seen in decades.
Being stuck in a series of minefields and obstacle belts with artillery raining down upon us was something we had to avoid, and that meant not doing what the enemy wanted: we had to maintain our momentum at all costs.
Our plan worked beautifully. We maintained our momentum and quickly crushed the Iraqi army.
I was thinking about that battle while watching the U.S. Senate this morning do precisely what the enemy wanted: make America much more vulnerable to attack by refusing to extend some key sunsetting provisions of the Patriot Act.
America is at war with a merciless enemy the president confirms is already in our homeland, and the Senate hands the enemy a Christmas present like no other: an open invitation to attack almost at will.
In my mind’s eye, I could see the smiles on the faces of bin Laden, Zawahiri, Zarqawi and their ilk. In my other eyes, I could see the smiles on the faces of the senators on television who were pleased as punch to have just exposed America’s soft underbelly to the blade of bin Laden.
But there are peaks and valleys in any war, and today revealed a peak as well as a valley: the House of Representatives passed an immigration- and border security-reform bill that, if signed into law in its current form, will make our country more secure. This piece of good news amplified the great news out of Iraq yesterday that told of massive voter turnout in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. Even the Sunnis poured into the polling places and proudly displayed their ink-stained fingertips. The successful, almost bloodless election infuriated the likes of anti-Iraqi-freedom extremists Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Dirty Dick Durbin, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, Ward Churchill, Patrick Leahy, John Murtha, Ed Asner and so on, but in the end, their vile loathing of the very concept of Arabs being free was not enough to stop this surge toward the shores of freedom and democracy.
The paradox was stunning: the people of Iraq standing up to the terrorists who have killed tens of thousands of them, compared to U.S. senators aiding those same terrorists.
In this strange new world, those who face great peril on a daily basis by simply walking to the corner market showed far greater courage than wealthy American senators whose moral turpitude will live in infamy in American history while being celebrated and praised by genocidal fanatics.
Tonight, as Ted Kennedy slurps yet another tall scotch, the enemy plots with a grin and thanks the U.S. Senate for making their mission easier to accomplish.
Bottoms up.
Bob Newman
December 17, 2005
by Bob Newman
Standing in the northern Saudi Arabian desert looking at the inferno of 700+ burning oil wells, I wondered about our attack, which was to come in just a couple of hours. Our plan called for the 2nd Marine Division to punch holes through the berm of sand dividing Saudi Arabia from Kuwait, blow lanes through the minefields and obstacle belts the Iraqi army had built all along the border, and assault the fortified Iraqi positions with everything we had.
Once in the attack, there would be nowhere to take cover in the seemingly endless and almost featureless desert. The fight would be on and I felt pretty good about it, given what I knew. And what I knew was that there was no way in hell Saddam’s army was going to defeat the Corps. That knowledge, added to the details of our warfighting skills and battle plan, assured us of victory.
As we would be on the offensive, a key factor our plans were built upon had to do with us knowing we must avoid doing what the enemy wanted us to do. And of all the things the enemy wanted us to do, what they wanted most was for the Marines to lose their momentum in the attack; momentum being one of the fundamentals of the offense. If we lost our momentum in the wide-open desert, Iraqi artillery, especially their South African-made G-5 howitzers, could fix us in place and, with the thick smoke from the burning wells seriously reducing our ability to employ close-air support, create a killing field the likes of which had not been seen in decades.
Being stuck in a series of minefields and obstacle belts with artillery raining down upon us was something we had to avoid, and that meant not doing what the enemy wanted: we had to maintain our momentum at all costs.
Our plan worked beautifully. We maintained our momentum and quickly crushed the Iraqi army.
I was thinking about that battle while watching the U.S. Senate this morning do precisely what the enemy wanted: make America much more vulnerable to attack by refusing to extend some key sunsetting provisions of the Patriot Act.
America is at war with a merciless enemy the president confirms is already in our homeland, and the Senate hands the enemy a Christmas present like no other: an open invitation to attack almost at will.
In my mind’s eye, I could see the smiles on the faces of bin Laden, Zawahiri, Zarqawi and their ilk. In my other eyes, I could see the smiles on the faces of the senators on television who were pleased as punch to have just exposed America’s soft underbelly to the blade of bin Laden.
But there are peaks and valleys in any war, and today revealed a peak as well as a valley: the House of Representatives passed an immigration- and border security-reform bill that, if signed into law in its current form, will make our country more secure. This piece of good news amplified the great news out of Iraq yesterday that told of massive voter turnout in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. Even the Sunnis poured into the polling places and proudly displayed their ink-stained fingertips. The successful, almost bloodless election infuriated the likes of anti-Iraqi-freedom extremists Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Dirty Dick Durbin, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, Ward Churchill, Patrick Leahy, John Murtha, Ed Asner and so on, but in the end, their vile loathing of the very concept of Arabs being free was not enough to stop this surge toward the shores of freedom and democracy.
The paradox was stunning: the people of Iraq standing up to the terrorists who have killed tens of thousands of them, compared to U.S. senators aiding those same terrorists.
In this strange new world, those who face great peril on a daily basis by simply walking to the corner market showed far greater courage than wealthy American senators whose moral turpitude will live in infamy in American history while being celebrated and praised by genocidal fanatics.
Tonight, as Ted Kennedy slurps yet another tall scotch, the enemy plots with a grin and thanks the U.S. Senate for making their mission easier to accomplish.
Bottoms up.
Bob Newman