This is a mainstream news report on the use of AC 130 Gun ships being sent to Iraq followed with a quick translation in common sense English.
AN AIR BASE IN IRAQ – The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes — the lethal “flying gunships” of the Vietnam War — to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance, The Associated Press has learned.
Translation: The C130 will be used for impact on civil war, civil disturbance where large groups of people are gathered. It could aslo be used as air power to replace a small number of ground troops who will be sent back to the U.S. for show before the November elections. The C130 may come in handy for the proposed air war against Iran.
An AP reporter saw the first of the turboprop-driven aircraft after it landed at the airfield this week. Four are expected.
The Iraq-based Special Forces command controlling the AC-130s, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, said it would have no comment on the deployment. But the plan’s general outline was confirmed by other Air Force officers, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject. .
Translation: Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force is a mouthful of insecurity masked as confident, professional sounding verbiage and used to cover up the incompetence, bureaucracy, corruption, silliness and immorality of the U.S. military in Iraq. The constant never ending barrage of “big word” verbiage betrays the utter insecurity of the people who govern the military. They really do hide behind their words to cover up the fact that they have no idea what they are doing.
Military officials warned that disclosing the location of the aircraft’s new base would violate security provisions of rules governing media access to U.S. installations. .
Translation: Another attempt to threaten the press and to label any questioning of the military as indicative of sympathy for terrorism.
the four-engine gun ships, whose home base is Hurlburt Field in Florida, have operated over Iraq before, flying from airfields elsewhere in the region. In November 2004, air-to-ground fire from AC-130s supported the U.S. attack that took the western city of Fallujah from insurgents. .
Translation: They were used to massacre innocent women and children, by a ration anywhere from 2 to 1 to 10 to 1 to so -called “insurgents”. This was done no doubt on a personal order from Bush and Cheney (Perhaps more an order from former Halliburton chief Cheney) to revenge the hanging of 3 Halliburton employees by people who may or may not have been residents of Fallujah. The city of Fallujah has never been taken from insurgents so the implied success of the plane as a support vehicle is simply a cover for the failure of the invasion of Fallujah as a whole. Also, basing the planes in Iraq means easier access and turn around times to Iran.
Basing the planes inside Iraq will cut hours off their transit time to reach suspected targets.
Planes heavily armed_The left-side ports of the AC-130s, 98-foot-long planes that can slowly circle over a target for long periods, bristle with a potent arsenal — 40 mm cannon that can fire 120 rounds per minute, and big 105 mm cannon, normally a field artillery weapon. The plane’s latest version, the AC-130U, known as “Spooky,” also carries Gatling gun-type 20 mm cannon.
The gunships were designed primarily for battlefield use to place saturated fire on massed troops. In Vietnam, for example, they were deployed against North Vietnamese supply convoys along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where the Air Force claimed to have destroyed 10,000 trucks over several years.
Translation: They are absolutely useless. The C130 failed after destroying “10,000 trucks” and entire villages of non-combatants against an army and people that had no air force or major antiaircraft capability. The logic seems to be: “If it didn’t work in Vietnam we should try it again in Iraq.” A horrible denial of the failure in Vietnam revisited on the people of Iraq, by the USA, (Uncultured, Selfish, Arrogant)
The use of AC-130s in places like Fallujah, urban settings where insurgents may be among crowded populations of noncombatants, has been criticized by human rights groups.
The slow-moving AC-130s also offer an intelligence gathering advantage in the Iraq fight: sophisticated long-range video, infrared and radar sensors. .
Translation: The human rights groups don’t know what they are talking about. These easily targeted, slow moving ships are “intelligence gatherers and sensors”. So the implication is that they can be used to gather intelligence, not just kill. This is more professional sounding, but in reality empty verbiage to conceal the fact that the U.S. military is not competent. If it were competent, a substantial (at least 10%) of the leadership would have resigned by now in view of, and in protest of the self defeating, disastrous orders that they are being asked to enact. The word “intelligence” is constantly being over used to cover for the fact that Military Covert and Overt operations are run by extremely limited people who rely (and are sometimes financially beholding to) corrupt corporate science and technology firms like Lockheed Martin. These corrupt firms give rise to the implementation of really poorly thought out programs and escapades like “the War on Terror and the War in Iraq.”
American commanders are marshaling all available tools to detect the Iraqi insurgents’ stealthy operations, especially at night, when they plant roadside bombs targeting American road patrols and convoys. .
Translation: The reason we can’t stop a bunch of guys from burying their IED bombs along the side of the road after they eat dinner and sip some tea before they go to bed is because they are “stealthy.”
The Air Force’s senior tactical commander in Iraq said the AC-130 can be both a high-intensity and low-intensity weapon. .
Translation: It’s a big fat, slow, dumb plane with lots of guns.
“It’s got tons of guns, and it’s got all kinds of stuff on it that can be applied to the problems you have,” Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, who refused to discuss the current AC-130 deployment, said in an AP interview. .
Translation: This is secret, top secret stuff. I can’t really talk about it except to say this plane is the Swiss Army Knife of gunships. We could really turn the war around with this thing. We just might win this thing yet! I think I may be up for a promotion if I keep talking like this.
That “stuff” includes “the ability to take these high-tech pods and to use them to find guys planting (bombs) and to find other nefarious activity,” he said. .
Translation: The turban headed guys planting the bombs won’t hear the roar of the ancient low flying C130’s with thier 4 giant propellers clanging over head. The turbaned terrorists will not wait until the plane passes by before they are gunned down. That’s because their turbans will block out the sound. They didn’t wear turbans in Vietnam. High tech pods are big fat guns that kill lots of people. And maybe we will be able to kill a few insurgents among with the hundreds of women, children and men. Nefarious activity is evil activity promoted by non-Christians and probably consists off bakers going off to work in the wee hours of the morning to prepare buns and rolls for those who eat breakfast in Iraq.
The Predator drone — the MQ-1 unmanned aerial vehicle — has been a reconnaissance workhorse in Iraq, but Air Force officers say they don’t have enough to meet demand for missions. The fiscal 2007 Defense Department budget proposed last month by the Bush administration envisions spending $1.6 billion on additional reconnaissance drones. .
Translation: More pouty face about how “poor” and “indigent” the military is. Another hidden commentary on how the military budget and the nations “safety” keeps getting gobbled up with needless domestic programs like education, infrastructure and healthcare.
