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Army Says US War Machine Nearly Fell Apart in Iraq


jamiroguy1

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This is pretty shocking, actually. The impression anyone would have gotten from the press corp was an effortless invasion. In fact it looks sloppy in hind sight.

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US war machine nearly fell apart, army reveals

February 4, 2004

The first official army history of the Iraq war reveals that United States forces were plagued by supply shortages, radios that could not reach far-flung troops and virtually no reliable intelligence on how Saddam Hussein would defend Baghdad.

While it is well known that many army units ran low on fuel and water as fast-moving armoured forces raced towards the Iraqi capital, the study offers vivid new details of a supply system nearing collapse.

Tank engines sat on warehouse shelves in Kuwait with no truck drivers to carry them north. Broken-down trucks were scavenged for usable parts and left by the roadside. Artillery units cannibalised parts from captured Iraqi guns to keep their howitzers operating.

In most cases, soldiers improvised solutions to keep the offensive rolling.

"The morass of problems that confounded delivering parts and supplies - running the gamut of paper clips to tank engines - stems from the lack of a means to assign responsibility clearly," the report concluded.

The unclassified study was ordered last year by the former army chief-of-staff General Eric Shinseki, who clashed with the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, over troop strength for postwar Iraq. It draws on interviews with 2300 people, 68,000 photographs and nearly 120,000 documents.

Full article

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/03/1075776064461.html

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Originally posted by mrmatas2277

that happens when u "cut" funds to the military...at least we know that our soldiers are resourceful...

I don't think we can blame it on funding problems. Were they cutting funds as our troops were invading Iraq? Didn't our congress give the military full financial support and grant them whatever the pentagon requested, (money wise that is) to invade Iraq?

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Originally posted by jamiroguy1

I don't think we can blame it on funding problems. Were they cutting funds as our troops were invading Iraq? Didn't our congress give the military full financial support and grant them whatever the pentagon requested, (money wise that is) to invade Iraq?

I think that money went somewhere else, sometimes i believe our very own government doesn't support our troops.

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Originally posted by jamiroguy1

I don't think we can blame it on funding problems. Were they cutting funds as our troops were invading Iraq? Didn't our congress give the military full financial support and grant them whatever the pentagon requested, (money wise that is) to invade Iraq?

yea..but u have to remember...things dont "kick in" right away..the military u see now is still a couple of years behind..i mean it is also not uncommon to stretch supply lines very very thin...happened to Patton in his March in Europe and i know it happened in Vietnam when my old man was there...

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Originally posted by djxeno

I think that money went somewhere else, sometimes i believe our very own government doesn't support our troops.

I see that the stupidity serum that you inject yourself each morning is working perfectly

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