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Originally Posted by Pete
"Jaw-Jaw" seemed to work so well for them in Basra.
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Not so much. Just this year as they were leaving, the place (COB Basra) was constantly getting hit (indirect fire). They had the camp set up so people slept in bunkers or "Tombs". They didn’t send out QRFs to engage during or after an attack. They didn’t want "to aggravate the enemy". When 10th Mtn, 4ID and the US Marines showed up and "arrogantly" flew QRFs out while the runway was on "black" it was the beginning of some peace of mind and the start of virtually stopping the incoming. Our "war-war" patrols "arrogantly" take away weapons caches and dispose of them as well. Imagine that. So, if you engage the enemy directly and take away his weapons he can’t take never ending pot shots form outside of an encampment.
Quotes from [URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/6634115/Iraq-war-files-British-colonels-scathing-attack-on-arrogant-bureaucratic-Americans.html"] regarding nation building:
"Surprisingly, as a result, we got ahead of the Americans in the North"
"As far as the Iraqis were concerned, here was a nation who could put people on the moon but who could not, or would not, fix the electricity supply. You need to have money in order to make things happen, to buy protection from the looters, to smooth out tribal problems and to have immediate and visible effect and we did not have that."
So which is it? Was the nation being built or not?Too bad the British didn’t spend any money and now the song is the Americans didn’t supply the British w/ the money to spend. I’m just glad the fly infested British "Div-HQ" is gone. That place reeked of piss so bad you didnt think twice about using a port a john.
Having said that, I did meet some cool Brits.
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