Al Zerquaoui is Dead!!!!

[bulletpusher]

In Jordan the No. 1 Terriorist in Iraq met his just due. Al Zarqawi was in a small town in Jordan and the U.S. Special Forces surrounded him and did their duty.

The bad guy and seven of his budies bit the big one.

Thank you Lord.

God Bless the United States.

Bulletpusher

:D :D :D :D

[Mil Dot]

Gonna miss him.;)

[bulletpusher]

Depending on which news source you listen to he was taken out by either the Special Forces or the Air Force, and he was in Jordan or Iraq when they got him.

The only think they are saying for sure is that the jerk is dead!

As long as he's dead it works for me. He was a special kind of EVIL that this world didn't need.

Thank the Good Lord, now maybe the things going on in Iraq and the rest of the middle east will start to calm down.

Bulletpusher

[M.T. Pockets]

It was 94 degrees in Minnesota yesterday. For here that is hot.

I'll bet it's even hotter where this guy is today.

[GoodOlBoy]

Ya got that right, and good riddance.

GoodOlBoy

[Aim to maim]

Originally posted by bulletpusher

Thank the Good Lord, now maybe the things going on in Iraq and the rest of the middle east will start to calm down.

Bulletpusher

I'm very glad he's gone and I commend any and all branches of the U.S military responsible for his well-deserved demise. However, if you are expecting this to bring about a significant reduction in violence and anti-U.S. sentiment in that region, I fear you are going to be sorely disappointed.

[larryours]

Hand him a pitch fork !:D :)

[TreeDoc]

The report I read says that he and his entourage of 7 met their fate with the help of 2 500 lb bombs dropped from F16's.

Now, what I want to know is why aren't we dragging his tired, dead ass threw the streets of Bagdad and hanging him from a bridge to rot?

[Steverino]

Treedoc wrote: Now, what I want to know is why aren't we dragging his tired, dead ass threw the streets of Bagdad and hanging him from a bridge to rot?

Because like it or not... that's what separates us from the enemy. You also don't want to give those scumbag terrorist recruiters any more propaganda from which to recruit new raghead bombers. There's probably already a half dozen new factions of the terrorist's Medussa head jockeying for position in Iraq's Al-Queda network left by the power vaccuum.

[Rocky Raab]

My only regret is that being beaned by a Mk-82 is way too quick a death.

The best line I read so far is this one from another board:

Well today his name was changed from Zerquaoui to Charcoaly. And by now he's learned that his 72 virgins are not only all clones of Janet Reno - but every one of them is ablaze for eternity.

Cuddle up, Charcoaly. Cuddle tight.

[royinidaho]

Rocky you're ruthless....;)

[8X56MS]

Rocky, I believe he was done in by two JDAMs, or GBU-30. We spent a few extra bucks and used a Smart Bomb :)

[Wahnie]

Originally posted by Rocky Raab
Well today his name was changed from Zerquaoui to Charcoaly. And by now he's learned that his 72 virgins are not only all clones of Janet Reno - but every one of them is ablaze for eternity.

You crack me up, Rocky! Gotta sig that! :D

One less scumbag on the face of the Earth. Hope they bury the SOB in shorts and flip flops, its gunna be hot where he's going.

[Hawkeye6]

I'm not usually in favor of being nasty to our enemies, but this guy really deserved worse than what he got. I guess we'll just have to pray that he really gets his in Eternity.

[Rocky Raab]

It's been a loooong time since I was involved in the business of inserting ballistic suppositories, but I believe the JDAM or GBU-30 is simply a guidance kit bolted to a standard MK-82 500-pound bomb shell.

Tater? You da man in that area. Am I correct?

[TheBadOne]

Caller-- Can you hear me now?

Zarqawi ----- ***1610;***1587;***1578;***1591;***1610;***1593; ***1571;***1606;***1575; ***1587;***1605;***1593;***1578; ***1571;***1606;***1578; ***1575;***1604;***1570;***1606; ***1606;***1593;***1605; (Yes, I can hear you now.)

Caller-- Good, Look up.

Zarqawi ----***1606;***1592;***1585;***1578; ***1601;***1608;***1602; [***1571;***1607;] [***1588;***1610;***1578;] (Look up! Oh, sh**!)

[8X56MS]

It's been a loooong time since I was involved in the business of inserting ballistic suppositories, but I believe the JDAM or GBU-30 is simply a guidance kit bolted to a standard MK-82 500-pound bomb shell.

Tater? You da man in that area. Am I correct?


Yep, thats pretty much what the JDAM is comprised of. With the kit though, you only need one, instead of a B52 load to do the same job. :)

[Rocky Raab]

CAUTION! War story follows...

I was working a set of NVA bunkers and storage sites with their associated heavy machine gun anti-aircraft gun pits.

After working a pair of F-4s on the target (with their normal mediocre bomb acuracy), I was given a pair of VNAF A-1s. The A-1 was a large, slow, propellor-driven plane that was the piston equivalent of today's A-10 Warthog. VNAF pilots had flown thousands of combat missions, and were not only good but REALLY good. Normally, only the lead pilot spoke English (of a sort) and he would relay the Forward Air Controller's instructions and clearances to his wingman.

On this particular day, the ground gunners had nobody to shoot at after the F-4s departed - except me. So they did, with glee and skill. I was dancing my O-2 around, bobbing and weaving for all I was worth when the VNAF flight showed up. Lead advised me they were carrying wall-to-wall Mk-82s.

Knowing from past experience that Lead would put every single one of his 500-pounders within ten feet of where I directed him, and also knowing that his wingman would drop his bombs in virtually the same hole before there was time to give him a correction, I briefed Lead to drop his bombs one at a time versus the normal two per pass.

"OK, Lead. You see NVA gun by palm tree?"

"I see him big time. He shoot you numba one!"

"Lead is cleared hot. One bomb."

KABOOM! Lead's bomb hits no more than three feet from the .51-cal gun. KABOOM! Wingman's bomb hits inside the smoke of Lead's bomb strike.

Lead killed the other two gun pits with two more bombs, and his wingman put his completely redundant bombs into the same holes - then they knocked out the bunkers with the same nonchalant skill. Boom-Boom....Boom-Boom....Boom-Boom.

Those guys didn't need no steeenkeeng GPS, no damn lasers. The best of them were the absolute best at dropping bombs, bar none.

[Aim to maim]

Thanks for the excellent story Mr. Raab.

Regarding al-Zarqawi, it is generally unwise to attempt to draw parallels between wars, but the 1943 demise of Japanese Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto (also at the hands of the U.S. Air Force) comes to mind. Treacherous and deserving of his fate as he was, I still can't help but think that the admiral was far more of a class act than al-Zarqawi.

[fabsroman]

Yamamoto was much more honorable than Al Zerquaoui, period. Now, the Japanese themselves were a terrible bunch, but I do not think Yamamoto was. Granted, he performed a sneek attack on Pearl Harbor, but that is warfare. I think George Washington did the same thing against the British. In warfare, you do not warn the enemy that you will be attacking. However, in warfare you also do not target citizens.

As far as World War II is concerned, there was a lot of terrible things done. Let's try to remember that history is generally written by the victors. With that in mind, how about the US/British fire bombing of German cities towards the end of the war. I believe we fire bombed Dresden and there was no great need to do so. We destroyed irreplaceable art and killed countless civilians. For those of you that do not know how fire bombing worked, it required extreme heat/fire, usually created with napam and/or by targeting buildings that would catch on fire. As we know, fire consumes oxygen, and with a huge city to consume, the fire needed a ton of oxygen. The oxygen would be sucked in from the outlying areas and channeled through the buildings. The winds would be incredible. There are stories about babies being sucked out of mothers' arms and sucked right into the fires. How about the dropping of TWO atomic bombs and the countless citizens that were killed in those bombings? Would one have worked just as well? Probably. Heck, we could have dropped the bomb on a small, barely inhabited island off of Japan's mainland and that probably would have ended the war too. Then again, it is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback 60 years after the fact.

During our fight against the British, we mainly used gorilla warfare. We did not engage the British through normal protocal of war for those days (i.e., we did not line up on opposite sides of a field and continue firing until nobody was left standing on one side). Essentially, we ambushed the British along their marches.

Do I really fault the muslims for their tactics. Not really, with the exception of their use of hostages and the targeting of civilians as the main target. We all know there is collateral damage in all wars. Heck, there were some reports of women and a child being killed in the bombing of Zerquaoui. Do I think it was a bad thing to do. NO. That is just how it goes in war. Now, the cutting off of civilian heads is a completely different thing.

I have no issue with their use of road side bombs or suicide bombers against our military. Yeah, it sucks that our guys die that way, but that is how war is. The Japanese used suicide bombers too, but we quickly learned how to deal with them too. Hopefully, we will learn how to deal with these road side bombs and suicide bombers in the near future.

To sum it up, I do not think that Yamamoto can even be compared to Zerquaoui. Sure, he killed US service men in an act of war, but the US got caught with its pants down in Pearl Harbor. We were arrogant. Same thing happened on 9/11. It took World War II and a lot of mens lives to rectify our arrogance, and now it is taking the Iragi war to rectify our latest bout of arrogance, which has resulted in no terrorist attacks against the US other than in the Middle East. Hopefully, nothing will happen with Iran.

This whole thing sucks, but I am glad that we killed this guy. I will pop a bottle of champagne if we ever get Osama Bin Laden or his right handed man that wears the turban and glasses. That would be great.

[8X56MS]

Fabs, I have to take issue with some of your post. The fact that we were at peace with Japan, and were in fact in a diplomatic dialog with their representatives at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack does not indicate 'arrogance' to me.

I do have a big issue with the terrorist method of waging 'war'. Their intent is not to free their Country. Their sole intent is to make sure that they, and no one else, will be in control of Iraq in the years to come, and that they, and no one else, will have control of Iraq's oil revenue. They are thugs, criminals, and guileless murders. I have no respect either for the Japanese (or German) motives or conduct in WW II. I make no apologies for Allied conduct in WW II, like some that would re write history. Can you imagine how that history would read if Hitler had won? We probably would not have the ability to have this conversation. The German people put Hitler in power, supported him, and then said/ did nothing while he raped Europe and the Russians. They full well deserved what they receivied.

[fabsroman]

My simple point is that there really is no right or wrong during war. War is ugly, and it sucks that it is sometimes necessary, but that is life.

Washington lead troops across the Delaware on Christmas day and attacked the British the very next morning. I guess that is fine, since it wasn't actually Christmas day. The American militia was seriously struggling at that point though.

What you need to look at is the position that a military is put in. In World War II, Japan was facing a serious shortage of food, metal, and gas. They were waging war in China, Laos, and Vietnam to secure food. Their negotiations with us were for the delivery of military grade metal and military grade gasoline and those negotiations began honestly. Now, if you were about to attack a country like the US, would you honestly break off all negotiations and announce that you are going to bomb Pearl Harbor. I think not. If you say yes, you would be a pretty arrogant person to do so.

The US was arrogant when Pearl Harbor happened. We never thought the Japanese could get torpedos in the harbor because it was too shallow. We never thought that airplanes could do much harm to a battleship fleet. We learned our lesson the hard way. We also made a couple of mistakes that day that could have prevented Pearl Harbor, but the people that made those mistakes just could not fathom that the Japanese would be attacking. The radar operator mistook the blips on the radar for American warplanes, but if he had made a call he would have know that the Army planes were nowhere near. There were one or two more mistakes that day, but I cannot remeber them off the top of my head.

Same with 9/11. We never thought they could actually take down the World Trade Center. We never thought that they could hijack our planes. We just didn't view the terrorists as much of a threat.

As far as I am concerned, the muslim hatred of the US is due to the US backing of Israel which has been taking place for 50+ years. I don't think we would take it too kindly if Mexico were backed by Russia and Mexico was taking land away from us. Granted, that would never happen, so it is rather tough for Americans to understand the muslim plight. They have almost no means to fight Israel, especially since Israel has nukes and the muslims do not. Let me ask this, why did we okay nukes for Israel but not for the muslims? Why is it okay for Israel to have them but not Iran?

I do disagree with the muslim terrorists tactics of targeting civilians, but if on 9/11 they took out the White House, Capital, Supreme Court, and Pentagon, I probably would have considered the civilians on the planes and in the buildings as collateral damage, like the women and possible child that we killed while bombing Zerquaoui. However, they weren't that smart and they targeted a completely civilian building, the World Trade Center. I have no qualms about them hitting the Pentagon because it is a military building and I think almost everybody would agree that if they went to war with the US they would take out the Pentagon if possible.

Now, their killing civilians on purpose, and beheading civilians on purpose, puts them in a completely different league than Yamamoto. Yamamoto struck military targets in an attempt to win a war. We think of him as a bad person because of all the American lives he killed in Pearl Harbor, but that is warfare. Yeah, life would suck if Hitler wasn't stopped, but Yamamoto is no Hitler. Yamamoto did not kill civilians because of the color of their eyes.

If Zerquaoui is to be compared to anybody, it would be Hitler, not Yamamoto.

As far as the "terrorist" tactics are concerned, I would have no issue with their rode side bomb and suicide bomber tactics if they were aimed at military targets, but I don't think that is always the case. I also don't blame them for using those tactics against Israel. They just do not have anything to fight with that can compete with the US or Israel. It would be liek aliens invading Earth and us having to fight any way we can to survive. That is about the only way I can put this into perspective for us high and mighty Americans that have the best technology possible nowadays.

Okay, time to wash the cars.

[8X56MS]

Fabs, if you want to entertain mitigating circumstances for those that our Country deems enemies, thats your biz. If you want to provide reasons why their behavior is 'our fault', thats your biz too.
By the way, Yamamoto was in charge of policy and execution of policy for much of the areas where Japanese atrocities were commited against American Servicemen, and civilians. To me, that makes him complicit.
We simply do not agree on this issue. If we were to sit and chat face to face, our understanding of each other's position would most likely be better.

I already washed the cars. :)

[Skinny Shooter]

During our fight against the British, we mainly used gorilla warfare. We did not engage the British through normal protocal of war for those days (i.e., we did not line up on opposite sides of a field and continue firing until nobody was left standing on one side). Essentially, we ambushed the British along their marches.

That's a bit of a fallacy that I learned in grade school which still persists and is promulgated by the movie "The Patriot" and others. It is true that we did use guerrilla tactics against lobsterbacks but the war was mainly won by the Continental Army using European linear-style tactics. Which means toe to toe and slugging it out.
We did aquit ourselves well in earlier battles using those tactics but the numbers and supplies were against us. Our army suffered much because of the way it was first set-up in the beginning.
Later, after a hard winter at Valley Forge did we cohese into a confident and well-trained force to deal with the Brits. and for all the French haters out there, if it weren't for the frogs we'd be speaking English today. They pulled our bacon outta the fire...

Washington lead troops across the Delaware on Christmas day and attacked the British the very next morning. I guess that is fine, since it wasn't actually Christmas day. The American militia was seriously struggling at that point though.

What is the point? The Hessians (mis-named due to the majority of German mecenaries coming from the region of hesse-cassel) were much feared by the "rebels" and the Jaegers gave no quarter to the Americans on the field of battle. What if it was Christmas Day? Would that be wrong?
I'm sure you don't mean it like this but I'm going to reword your sentence to say the Continental Army was in a state of despair and depression over its lack of success against the British up to that point.

My simple point is that there really is no right or wrong during war. War is ugly, and it sucks that it is sometimes necessary, but that is life.

If there is no right or wrong, then why are you putting the blame on the US for what they felt needed to be done along with the Brits in WWII?
Whine about Dresden to my great-uncle who flew in a B-17 over Germany and I'm sure you'll get an earful at the very least. It's real easy to sit here and complain about what happened when we didn't live thru it. I have no problems with dropping the bomb. And when the Japs refused to negotiate we gave them another go-round. Many, many more lives would have been lost if an invasion of the home islands had taken place.

What you need to look at is the position that a military is put in. In World War II, Japan was facing a serious shortage of food, metal, and gas. They were waging war in China, Laos, and Vietnam to secure food. Their negotiations with us were for the delivery of military grade metal and military grade gasoline and those negotiations began honestly. Now, if you were about to attack a country like the US, would you honestly break off all negotiations and announce that you are going to bomb Pearl Harbor. I think not. If you say yes, you would be a pretty arrogant person to do so.

They did it to themselves. The military-industrial complex put themselves into that position.
We didn't force them into it.
The Japs were sneaky bastards who talked out of both sides of their mouth and knew we were the key to world conquest for them.

The US was arrogant when Pearl Harbor happened. We never thought the Japanese could get torpedos in the harbor because it was too shallow. We never thought that airplanes could do much harm to a battleship fleet.

Would you post a link that says "we" were arrogant and Pearl Harbor happened because of it?
Now we could talk about the dirty deeds done to the american indian thru the centuries and then arrogance would be a big part of the equation. But that's not what this discussion is about.

Same with 9/11. We never thought they could actually take down the World Trade Center. We never thought that they could hijack our planes. We just didn't view the terrorists as much of a threat.
As far as I am concerned, the muslim hatred of the US is due to the US backing of Israel which has been taking place for 50+ years.

They hate the unbeliever. Period.
The muslims have all kinds of excuses as to why we are the great satan. They need to get over their victim mentality and get on with life. Israel is just another excuse in a long line of excuses... Some say they have a long memory and hold grudges> Hmmm, maybe they are the ones who need to brush up on civility and and how to live alongside peoples who have different views than their own. The antagonism between muslims and non-muslims goes back thousands of years.

I don't think we would take it too kindly if Mexico were backed by Russia and Mexico was taking land away from us. Granted, that would never happen, so it is rather tough for Americans to understand the muslim plight. They have almost no means to fight Israel, especially since Israel has nukes and the muslims do not. Let me ask this, why did we okay nukes for Israel but not for the muslims? Why is it okay for Israel to have them but not Iran?

Fabs, are you feeling ok? :)
Are you calling the PLO freedom fighters? Like CNN does?
Did you really mean to ask why we haven't ok'd nukes for unstable individuals or dictatorships? That's like issuing carry permits for patients from a nearby state hospital to carry firearms...

Now, their killing civilians on purpose, and beheading civilians on purpose, puts them in a completely different league than Yamamoto. Yamamoto struck military targets in an attempt to win a war. We think of him as a bad person because of all the American lives he killed in Pearl Harbor, but that is warfare. Yeah, life would suck if Hitler wasn't stopped, but Yamamoto is no Hitler. Yamamoto did not kill civilians because of the color of their eyes.

Ok, Yamamoto has a dive bomber heading right for me and my last thoughts are only happy thoughts about how much of a nice guy he is, he's just doing his job, he didn't mean it. Boooooom, there goes Skinny, just a lump of charred manbeef... Yep, good 'ol Yamamoto yuck, yuck, yuck. No thoughts would enter my utopian mindset about how much of a bastard he is, or that he needs killin' because he's furthering a war machine that is raping and pillaging its way across Asia, nah, not me...
Here's a link to see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

As far as the "terrorist" tactics are concerned, I would have no issue with their rode side bomb and suicide bomber tactics if they were aimed at military targets, but I don't think that is always the case. I also don't blame them for using those tactics against Israel.

Once again, are you feeling ok?

They just do not have anything to fight with that can compete with the US or Israel. It would be liek aliens invading Earth and us having to fight any way we can to survive.
That is about the only way I can put this into perspective for us high and mighty Americans that have the best technology possible nowadays.

Fabs, I'm glad I don't have as big of a guilt complex as you do. It sounds like you are saying that Americans are the bad guys because we have technology?
Let me ask this question, would the world be better off if our foreign policy had not left our shores starting in WWI? Think long and hard before you answer.

Okay, time to wash the cars.

Got mine washed, cleaned the interior and helped contribute to the decline of the environment by applying black magic to my tires.
If I have missed something, well these loooong posts are sometimes hard to keep up with. :D

["yote"]

Hey Rocky, The MK-82 Guidance package is a IR seeking system
that requires a Laser Designater. The JDAM or GBU-3 is a whole
different critter. It is Satalite/GPS guided. Just drop it and forget it.
No continuous target illumination or anything. Drop it and BOOM!!!


P.S. In case anyone was wondering what "JDAM" stands for, It is
Joint Defense Arerial Munition

[Rocky Raab]

Laser seeker, not IR, but that is correct.

The MK-82 part of it is just the 500-pound bomb. When you bolt a guidance package to it, it becomes a GBU-something (Guided Bomb Unit, I think)

From the description of the event, I don't think it was pre-planned to use both types of weapon, but that was quite smart - in case the GPS coords were wrong OR if the laser package didn't guide properly.

[Mil Dot]

Really bites for the reciepient when they both work.

["yote"]

Rocky, Laser seeking is a form of IR . Just more intense and concentrated heat source. If you are veiwing the target at night with a Thermal Imager, you had better turn it WAY down or better yet, turn it off. Or your eyes may be in for a rather un-pleseant,if not harmfull experience.

[Rocky Raab]

I guess it is, come to think of it. Like I said, it's been a loooonng time since I was actively involved in delivering aerial suppositories to the unwilling.

[fabsroman]

I responded to this thread a little yesterday, but that was on a dialup line and I got cut off before I could finish. My cable line has been out and will not be back up until tomorrow, hopefully.

My simple point was that Yamamoto is nowhere close to being compared to Zerquaoui.

As far as his being responsible for all the stuff that happened under him, I think that is a far stretch.

How about our Marines that killed innocent civilians after one of their buddies got killed. Should we hold the general in charge of the entire campaign in Iraq responsible for this episode? Should he be tried? Kind of tough to blame the person in charge.

Likewise, if Hitler were giving orders to do inhumane things, how many of you wouldn't do it if refusal meant getting a bullet in your head. I know, most of us will say there is no way we would do anything like that. However, until that gun is at your head, there is no way we can make that decision. A lot of people at differently under pressure than when given a hypothetical. We all like to think that we would step in front of a bullet to save our mother, but until that bullet is fired and we have to make that decision, nobody can tell me how they would decide. I like to think that I would jump in front of the bullet, probably would, but I cannot guarantee it.

Simply put, war is a dirty business, and again, I do not fault the muslims for the choice of warfare, just for targeting civilians directly versus killing civilians as part of collateral damage.

Skinny, I didn't even read your entire post because I am over at my brothers' place checking out the site. However, if there is anything in there about dropping two bombs on Japan, ask yourself why we couldn't wait a day or two for Japan's surrender before dropping the second one.

[Skinny Shooter]

Originally posted by fabsroman
How about our Marines that killed innocent civilians after one of their buddies got killed. Should we hold the general in charge of the entire campaign in Iraq responsible for this episode? Should he be tried? Kind of tough to blame the person in charge.

Skinny, I didn't even read your entire post because I am over at my brothers' place checking out the site. However, if there is anything in there about dropping two bombs on Japan, ask yourself why we couldn't wait a day or two for Japan's surrender before dropping the second one.
Fabs, forgot to mention that my post above wasn't meant to sound sarcastic. Unfortunately the web can't show facial expressions and gestures properly. Wait, that doesn't sound right either. ;) :D

About the Marines:
They didn't have a court-martial yet, and I believe they have not yet been charged with specific offenses. But that may have changed and I missed it. So my point is we shouldn't be calling "My Lai" and following the lead of the liberal media just yet.

Japan:
Bomb #1 dropped on 6/6/45 in the early morning.
Bomb #2 dropped on 6/9/45 in the late morning.
3 days were given.

[Rocky Raab]

I think the records show that the Japanese high command refused to believe the Hiroshima damage was caused by a single bomb. They were determined to fight on - until the Nagasaki bmob.

But we're getting VERY far afield from the original post, so...


NEWS FLASH!!

Zarkawi is still dead.

Good guys are still alive.


That's enough for me.

[fabsroman]

Rocky, I have not read that anywhere, but wouldn't be surprised by it if it were actually the case. The Japanese were fierce fighters that did not believe in surrender even if it was one man against one thousand. If that is the case, then I am glad we dropped the second bomb. I'll have to do some more reading up on WWII in my spare time.

[Rocky Raab]

Fabs, the Hiroshima bomb fell right on target and vaporized every military target in the city. The only witnesses reporting what happened to Japanese authorities were civilians. They insisted there was only one explosion, but they were simply not believed.

The Nagasaki bomb was dropped in desperation after the crew circled for a long time, trying to get a visual ID of the exact target (which was absolutely required by our high command). They were out of fuel and could not make it back to base with the bomb still aboard. They dropped it through a hole in the clouds, but missed the target by a good amount. The military complex that was to be ground zero was behind a small ridge - and thus protected from the worst of the blast. The unlooked-for benefit was that there were trained and believable military witnesses - and they confirmed it was one bomb, one blast.

That did it. The Emperor overruled the generals and ordered a surrender.

[Skinny Shooter]

Bulletpusher, here is a direct result of us bumping off al-Zarqawi:
Looks like some good intel was obtained.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RAIDS?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-06-15-08-25-20


Jun 15, 8:33 AM EDT

Post-al-Zarqawi Raids Kill 104 Insurgents

By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- American and Iraqi forces have carried out 452 raids since last week's killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and 104 insurgents were killed during those actions, the U.S. military said Thursday.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the raids were carried out nationwide and led to the discovery of 28 significant arms caches.

He said 255 of the raids were joint operations, while 143 were carried out by Iraqi forces alone. The raids also resulted in the captures of 759 "anti-Iraqi elements."

[bulletpusher]

Skinny,

I've been listening to all of the reports all day. The takedowns are having quite an effect on the insurgent/terrorist activates beening reported today.

All of the actions that your post reports have taken place in the past 24 hours or so and because of these actions the insurgents/terrorists have just about stoped all actions and attacks.

I am hoping that we've broken the back of at least some segment of the problems there and at least slowed the attacks down some.

God bless our Troups, and God bless the United States of America.

[Critch]

So Rocky, were you a 462 or a 461?

IYAAYAS! (I was AMMO baby,,,,,)

[Rocky Raab]

I don't even remember the difference.

There were actually three kinds of USAF O-2 pilots. A small number of poor boogers flew the O-2B model, derisively known as the Bullsh*t Bomber. It was a Psy Ops plane with a huge set of loudspeakers and a leaflet drop chute. The pilots were not Forward Air Controllers at all.

Of those flying the O-2A (with more radios plus rockets and other gear) were all Forward Air Controllers, but they were divided into "A" and "B" levels. "A" FACs were (ideally) all former fighter pilots with a (supposedly) better knowledge of aerial weapons, and their proper use - including their UNsafe use. To work with US troops in close enemy contact, you had to be an "A" FAC.

"B" FACs were fully qualified air strike commanders, but could only work targets that didn't involve ground troops.

I was an "A" Fac by virtue of having gone through "Instant Fighter Pilot School" where we flew obsolete fighters, dropped practice bombs, strafed and generally had a hoot of a time in the sunny skies of New Mexico. However, in the real world of combat, not one "B" Fac was ever prevented from helping some poor squad of grunts who got themselves into a fire fight and needed help soonest. Ironically, I found myself in a job for most of my tour that didn't involve running any kind of airstrikes at all!

But that's the subject of my next book...