Blaegis

Ahh, this topic is impossible to kill. It just keeps resurrecting. ...But I do have something relevant: a new Russian war movie called "Svoi", or "Our own". (IMDB info) It's pretty damn good. And they seemed to have working PzKpfwIV and a Pz38(t) in one (reallly silly) combat scene. PzKpfwIV was a wrong model for 1941 but this is still the first time I've seen either of those tanks in a movie which would look anything like the originals. Another good one was a TV-miniseries "Shtrafbat", or "Penal battalion" (IMDB ref). The budget obviously wasn't very big and military realism falling short on occasion, but I think the spirit of the series was right on. In their first assault the battalion is given the order to assault prepared positions through an uncleared minefield, with the NKVD ready behind the lines to shoot those showing signs of cowardice... In the end credits of the series they had a list of all the penal units of the Soviet Army during WW2. It was truly horrifying to watch. edit: typos

The Coockoo movie was very good. The fact that all three main characters spoke different languages made for some interesting (and hilarious) situations. As for the 'Peculiarities' series, I'd only recommend the first one - "The Peculiarities of National Hunting", which was great. Our ...ahem hunting culture in all its glory. And who can forget the airdropping of a cow from a Backfire episode. That was just too much... Â

Not really. I can't make out the letters. The first word is  something like i*kovaya, but I can't make out the second letter and the second word is also a lost cause. Sorry. Somebody more fluent in Russian might induce what it says. It says "mehovaya f-ka", the second word is an abbreviation for "fabrika". "Mehovaya fabrika" means "fur products factory". edit: Now that I've looked at the second picture, the hat was made in a place called Bobriysk in 1982 and it is (Russian) size 58. It has also passed the state quality inspection, according to the stamp up and left from the diamond. If you really must know. ...As for myself, I own Alpha woodland pattern cold-weather BDUs, kevlar flak jacket, Bundeswehr boots, web gear, magazine pouches, canteens and a pile of other milspec accessories. Plus a bunch of airsoft guns. Plus a katana that has "stainless steel" etched on it. Â

BTW, how come all the media keeps talking about a 6-hour firefight at the Q&U mansion? If the operation started at 1000 hours and the house was secured before 1400 hours, didn't it last 4 hours then?

I really don't care about the graphics all that much and the feature list in SilentStorm sure looks promising, but the demo always lets you know if the interface and game concept work. We'll know in a month, I guess. As for the robots (it actually looked more like power armor from the screenshots) you guys were discussing earlier, I can live with them if they don't affect the game balance too much. Remember the bugs in JA2? They weren't exactly realistic, but it was a still funny little side plot.

If anybody has any doubt about what kind of news agency (in a very broad sense of the word) Fox is should read this article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,92768,00.html In Sweden this would be categorized as "hets mot folkgrup" - a felony punishable by law. I think the english word for it is "racial agitation". It's incredible that a national-scale media outlet can publish such jingoistic drivel and get away with it. Talk about absurdity piled on absurdity. A-fucking-mazing.

I think a   is more appropriate. Hell no, I've played almost all of those games, starting with UFO: Enemy Unknown (actually starting with Laser Squad) and loved them. The reason why I didn't post about Silent Storm is because I'd like to see the demo before I comment on the game. Hard to say anything definitive just by looking at the screenshots...

This assumes that we knew exactly how many people were in the villa and surrounding area. Â As it turns out there weren't very many. Â On the other hand, WHAT IF a small Delta team had been sent in against 100 or 200 Fedayeen and/or RG troops? Â Eagle Claw II, anyone? An overwhelming show of force could have been intended to actually prevent a gunfight. Â Â You have a point. However, you'd think that with all the fancy intel platforms you guys have nowdays you could get a fairly reliable picture of the situation inside and around the house, even within the relatively short timeframe. As for the overwhelming force factor, you know and I know that those two had nothing to lose, so they sure as hell weren't going to surrender (i.e. taking them alive would've required skill and not just brute force). Bearing that in mind I can revise my initial assessment to: "It's possible that the operation wasn't planned as a hit, but given the assets employed such outcome was almost inevitable."

Thank you, Tex. For a moment I was worried my head was going to explode. Edit: Re: E6Hotel's comments Now that I stop to think about it, a smaller-scale SOCOM operation would've been better regardless of whether the objective was to eliminate or capture U&Q. Perhaps there were availablility constraints. And you're serious about CS being classified as a chemical weapon? Hm, IMO it'd do a lot of good to re-think that policy.

There were CAS assets used in this operation. For the love of god, do you actually read other people's posts? I know the CAS assets were used, however the A-10s (you know, the ones capable of dropping LGBs you mentioned earlier) were not - for fear of collateral damage. So, even though IMO the op was a hit they could not go in with everything they had...

This is my opinion, too (more or less). Â If this raid had been planned as a "hit" from the beginning we'd have sent a flight of F-18's or a wave of Tomahawks. Edited for quotational difficulties. Semper Fi As I said above, the CAS assets assigned to the operation were not used for fear of collateral damage. Rightly so, since the Americans are in enough trouble on the ground as it is without pissing off the Iraqis with more collateral damage. Besides, if you follow the line of reasoning that the operation wasn't planned as a hit, then you arrive to the conclusion that it turned out a cock-up, since you'd do a lot better with a quiet Delta (or another SOCOM unit) snatch-n-grab as opposed to deploying half of the 101st there. Alternatively, if the objective was a hit, then the op went just fine. Based on the available info so far, I think that's exactly what happened.

According to Sanchez, they didn't LGB the house, because they didn't want collateral damage (He actually said specifically that was they reason why they didn't use A-10s and AH-64s. They obviously wanted to.). So no dice there, FS. Avon: where in your article does it say that it was regular infantry that captured al-Tikriti?

Everything does look awfully... shiny.

Whether the operation was big or not doesn't make any difference. Â You can't prove to me that they wanted to kill those people. Well, OK, since you apparently haven't the foggiest idea of CQB tactics and/or are unwilling to use your brain I'll have to explain it slowly and in simple terms: 1) The American forces were tipped off regarding the location of Hussein's sons at least 12 hours before the beginning of the operation. Therefore, they had ample time to plan it and bring in specialized units if the goal of the op were to capture Uday and Qusay. Instead the result of the planning was the deployment of an infantry company and multiple support units. Already this should give you an inkling of what the expected result of the op was (infantry will kill quickly and efficiently but don't expect them to capture anybody). 2) After demanding surrender over the bullhorn, the Americans receive small-arms fire from the house (big surprise there) and storm the building. They rapidly secure the first floor, losing 3 men wounded in the courtyard and 1 on the stairwell inside the house. The occupants retreat to the second floor. Well, then, now as the assaulting side you have a number of non-lethal options for subduing your opponents, such as CS/irritant agents, flashbangs and breaching charges. Failing that, you just can sit them out on the first floor - they have nowhere to go. What do the Americans do? They fall back from the house and pound it with FFARs and TOWs instead. Once again, it sure looks like the desired outcome of the op would be the deaths of everybody in the house...

You are wrong. According to LtGen Sanchez' briefing, the tip-off on the possible location of Uday and Qusay (sp?) came in the evening the day before yesterday, the following night was spent on operation planning, and when the op actually commenced at 1000 hours yesterday, a full company of 101st was deployed for assault, with additional cordoning units plus on-call CAS including OH-58s, AH-64s and A-10s. So I stand by my earlier post (i.e. the aim of the operation was definitely to kill the occupants of that house).