"Operation Swarmer began early today with more than 1,500 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, about 200 tactical vehicles and more than 50 helicopters, the U.S. military said in a statement e-mailed from Baghdad. Samarra is about 80 miles (125 kilometers) north of the Iraqi capital on the Tigris River.
The goal of the raid is to ``clear a suspected insurgent operating area northeast of Samarra,'' the military said. The assault may last for several days while a search of the area is conducted, it said. " Bloomberg
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Hey, folks, this is a small operation. It sounds like a battalion of infantry (maybe two battalions) from the 101st Airborne Division and some Iraqi police troops. In Vietnam this operation would have been too small to have been given a name. It would have just been, "what you were doing tomorrow."
"Air Assault" means that the infantry is delivered by helicopter, that's all. The 101st is an airmobile division. That means that they are very light, have a lot of helicopters, and do not have enough trucks to deliver the infantry to the objective in a reasonable time. they also are looking to use helicopters for this kind of thing from the fear that they will go out of fashion.
I understand that there were NO air strikes in this, no bombs dropped, etc.
The only thing interesting about this operation is the fact that Casey is not going to let the insurgents build another redoubt in Samarra like the one they built in Fallujah.
Pat Lang
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a_tyeTZzl1hk&refer=top_world_news