With respect to casualty figures, I don't see why we will get much more information from the administration over the next week or so, if ever. I believe I posted a reference to an article on LBO earlier this week about the bodies of 500 US military personnel being transported back to the US from Afghanistan. I seem to recall the report saying that the administration was trying to keep the figure quiet, so they had been keeping the bodies in a morgue in Afghanistan until they could transport them home 'quietly.' If anybody wants me to, I'll see if I can dig out the link and repost.
Steven
Thiago wrote:
> I don't want to poo poo this site, but the aeronautics.ru thing has a
> feature on anti-gravity research. I hope we aren't tapping into the
> Russian equivalent of Omni or Nexus magazine... If the casualties >
figures they give for US/UK troops are even half way right, the >
official sources are misleading us by an order of magnitude. I just >
can't see that staying secret for very long.
Agreed. We should find out within the week, can't imagine they could keep losses of that magnitude secret even that long.
But for the moment, we should keep our eyes wide open.
The following AFP despatch that ran just before 8PMEST gives the French military intelligence view, and there are certain points of overlap. Note AFP's mistranslation of Raffarin's comment as "the horrors of a war that is taking place in front of our eyes, and in conditions which had not been announced." - which is not a claim of a coverup, but a mistranslation of "annoncer" which means in this context "had not been foreseen." The concluding comment by an unnamed "high French officer" (he was partying? - understandably) is particularly consistent with our purported Russian intelligence.
john mage
<http://www.inq7.net/brk/2003/mar/28/brkafp_13-1.htm> Baghdad may be another 'Beirut': French experts Posted: 9:52 AM (Manila Time) | Mar. 28, 2003 Agence France-Presse
PARIS-The United States and Britain have got themselves into a brutal and difficult war in Iraq, and any assault on Baghdad could see fighting similar to that witnessed in the Lebanese civil war of the 1970's and 80's, French military experts say.
Although military and civilian officials alike mostly refuse to go on the record with their comments on the fighting, one officer who asked not to named said Thursday: "We are a very long way from the technological warfare of recent conflicts."
"Now there's a real problem with the toughness of the fighting on the ground," he said, adding that after just over a week of fighting the US and British troops "are tired, as is their equipment."
The initial phase of the war, which has brought US troops across miles of desert and close to Baghdad, was now over, the official said.
"The Iraqi system has held up, and has even strengthened (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein. Now it's likely to be a real war, in Baghdad. They're going to have to go in -- and there, it's set to be a real Beirut," he commented.
The reference was to the civil war in Lebanon, which ran from 1975 to 1990 and saw, among other horrors, major truck-bomb attacks that left 241 US and 58 French soldiers dead in the capital in 1983.
The comments were also reflected in a speech made on Thursday by French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who told a government human rights committee that the war in Iraq was "horrific."
"Some people expected a speedy, technological war, a war of the 21st century," he said.
Instead "they are discovering one of the most horrific wars, like those that the 20th century gave us," he said.
Raffarin stressed "the horrors of a war that is taking place in front of our eyes, and in conditions which had not been announced."
Similar concern was expressed by a spokesman for the French defence ministry, Jean-Francois Bureau.
Reflecting France's opposition to the war, he said: "This war is a real war and the sooner it ends the better it will be, especially for the civilian populations."
Another unnamed French military official said he saw the war lasting some five months.
On the strategy followed by Saddam, he said the Iraqi leader was "applying the old principle of hitting the enemy when his line-up is weak and not yet in place, which is the case for the Americans."
The US forces were "tired after five days of moving across the desert, their morale isn't great, and they're waiting for reinforcements," he said.
The coalition forces were currently "in a moment of weakness," with very long supply lines, he commented.
Another high French officer said that the Americans "can't protect their logistical lines 100 percent, and the Iraqis have learned the lesson well. During the (1991) Gulf War, because of their fixed and defensive lines they were completely wiped out."
"This time they have very solid poles of resistance, with motivated people who go in and strike very fast. They hit and then get out," he said.