Peakah's Provocations...

UPDATE: Click on photo on right to see many many more pictures straight from the frontlines of "Operation Swarmer"! Thanks GunnNutt!!


US Air Power is finally flexing it's muscle to subdue an insurgent stronghold with "Operation Swarmer".

"More than 1,500 Iraqi and Coalition troops, over 200 tactical vehicles, and more than 50 aircraft participated in the operation," the military statement said of the attack designed to "clear a suspected insurgent operating area northeast of Samarra," 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The province is a major part of the so-called Sunni triangle where insurgents have been active since shortly after the U.S.-led invasion three years ago. Saddam Hussein was captured in the province, not far from its capital and his hometown, Tikrit.

Waqas al-Juwanya, a spokesman for Iraq's joint coordination center in nearby Dowr, said "unknown gunmen exist in this area, killing and kidnapping policemen, soldiers and civilians."

Near the end of the first day of the operation, the military said, "a number of enemy weapons caches have been captured, containing artillery shells, explosives, IED-making materials, and military uniforms."

We've been milling around like sitting ducks for too long now. If they want to try and instigate a Civil War- and no doubt the press will portray this as an escalation of a potential civil war rather than what it really is, we'll wipe them out before they can try.

I've been so sick of this tactic of going door to door. If we're going to subdue these insurgents they must be killed, and killed with total force.

Others following this story closely:

All Things Beautiful -has a link to the "National Security Strategy" (PDF file)

Somehow I think the President is trying to tell us something, launching the largest air attack on Iraq in three years, on the same day and almost simultaneously giving the zero tolerance message in the national security report, following along the lines of Israel, against terrorism. Obviously undaunted by the difficult war in Iraq, he reaffirmed today his strike-first policy against terrorists and enemy nations saying that Iran may pose the biggest challenge for America.

See her site for excellent up to the minute coverage.

Stop the ACLU

Good luck to our troops. I’m sure the MSM will try to wrap this into their ever hopeful civil war talk. Hopefully we will catch or kill someone of importance in their chain. Don’t hold your breath for the big fish, I expect to hear the same old…”we missed by a few hours.”

The Dread Pundit Bluto

Samarra is the site of the al-Askariya shrine. The bombing of the shrine touched off a mix of sectarian violence and terrorist activity designed to promote sectarian strife.

Pettifog
Liberty and Justice
The Jawa Report
Church and State