Death and Mayhem in Mosul

Yesterday, an apparent mortar attack on a US military camp in Mosul Killed 24 and wounded 64 people. Seventeen of the dead are from the 101st Airborne Division, at least four of the other seven dead were Halliburton employees. The Pentagon is worried about the precision of the attack.

If you read the Washington Post article above, then neither the attack nor its "precision" should be a surprise. It is noted that half on the 101st had been redeployed elsewhere so security could have probably been stronger. The article leads one to believe that the attack required inside intelligence and a high level of sophistication. I heard this given air on Ed Schultz' program yesterday as well. While these claims may be true, neither "inside intelligence" nor "sophistication" would be necessary.

You have a mess tent the size of a football field. That doesn't seem like it would be hard to spot. Also the troops go to the mess tent on a regular schedule. That probably wouldn't be too hard to figure out either. According to the soldier on Schultz' show, someone would have to "pace off" the distance to fire an accurate round. That is certainly one way to do it, but there is both low tech and high tech ways to accomplish it. The low tech approach is something similar to the golf range finder above. The high tech is the US Army's "Micro-Laser Range Finder." There are thousands of products in between these two.

Why would the story of inside intelligence and sophistication be popular theories to air? Given the level of civilian casualties in Iraq, reinforcing the idea that you can't tell the "good" Iraqi's from the "bad" Iraqi's helps provide justification for attacks on civilians. Building the image of increasing sophistication and coordination of the "insurgency" saves the US face, while both explaining failures of the military (strategy and protection) and legitimating harsher "control" measures and attacks.

I want to make it clear that there is likely an element of truth in both claims by the military and the administration. Iraq is urban warfare with seemingly more Iraqi's stepping forward to expel the "intruders." It also makes sense that coordination of these groups would improve over time. My concern is how those logical realities get spun and used, and I have no doubt that they will be (are being) spun and used. I also have no doubt that a crackdown on Mosul and insurgents is in the offing.

What is clearly known is that more US troops are dead in this failed Bush administration plan. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the dead and injured. My heart goes out to the troops in Iraq who have had one more illusion of a safe place removed.

[UPDATE 12/23/04 NEW NEWS
12/23/04 Oppel & Schmitt, NYT, Suicide Bombing Is Now Suspected in Mosul Attack
12/23/04 Howard, Guardian/UK, Pentagon says suicide bomber hit army base
12/23/04 Al Jazeera, US forces seal off Mosul]

Sources
12/21/04 Richmond Times-Dispatch, Mosul Attack Kills 24, Wounds 64

12/22/04 AP, Toll of Blast in Iraq Include Seven Workers at Defense Contractor Halliburton

12/22/04 Ricks, Wa. Post, Precision of Base Attack Worries Military Experts

February 1999,John Nettleton, Dallas Barr, Brad Schilling, & Jonathan Lei US ARMY CECOM RDEC NVESD Fort Belvoir, VA; Samuel M. Goldwasser, Bala-Cynwyd, PA Micro-Laser Range Finder Development: Using the Monolithic Approach

Know the Distance Range Finder from D. W. Quail Golf

Posted by rowan at December 22, 2004 8:28 AM | TrackBack | [eMail this article!] |