# The Swiftboating of Iraq **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 9, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214 "2007-03-09T03:50:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214/21 "2007-03-13T20:37:12Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] I don’t know either. [/QUOTE] What I do know is: 1: we are not allowed to fly along them because the danger is too great 2: with the roads being under patrol it’s safer for the insurgent to used the river 3: it makes more sense from a leadership point of view to assume they are. If you’re wrong, you wasted money. If you’re right, you stopped arms from traveling as freely across the country. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214/22 "2007-03-13T20:41:45Z")
[QUOTE=RandMcnally] 2: with the roads being under patrol it’s safer for the insurgent to used the river 3: it makes more sense from a leadership point of view to assume they are. If you’re wrong, you wasted money. [/QUOTE] But if you begin deploying swiftboats specifically to combat a threat that may or may not be present, it is not just wasted money, but military resources & personnel that may be better spent against known threats. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214/23 "2007-03-13T21:45:02Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] But if you begin deploying swiftboats specifically to combat a threat that may or may not be present, it is not just wasted money, but military resources & personnel that may be better spent against known threats. [/QUOTE] Can you say for certain that there is no problem along the rivers? If not, then it would be wiser, especially on these small military matters, on the professionals, who have much more information than we armchair generals on the SDMB. (Answer the question before resorting to rhetorical cheap shots about how these soldiers got us involved in an “illegal” “losing war” - it was not they who dictated policy.) You may as well call into question every minute policy, using your own lack of information as an argument. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214/24 "2007-03-13T22:04:58Z")
[Can’t Someone Just Fucking Look It UP?](http://www.military.com/forums/0,15240,86512,00.html) > [@](#): > > January 27, 2006 > The Navy Riverine units to be created this year will face a tough and dangerous task in Iraq, where insurgents increasingly rely on inland waterways to transport people and weapons. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which cut through the Iraqi heartland, also are vital avenues of escape for insurgents who strike in urban areas and slither away to avoid counterattacking American units. > > The only maritime capability now addressing the river-borne insurgents comprises little more than 100 Marine Corps reservists and fewer than 20 boats, according to Navy and Marine Corps officials. And those units are being disbanded. > > “Every commander that has rivers in their area of operation wants to have this capability,” said Marine Col. Ronald J. Johnson, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) that returned from Iraq last February. “There is never enough. It’s a valuable resource.” > > Johnson, whose area of responsibility south of Baghdad included a stretch of the Euphrates River, used Riverine Assault Craft (RAC) to thwart terrorist use of Iraq’s shallow waterways as critical lines of communication. He said the small river craft were in great demand by both Marine and Army troops. > … > Marine Riverines attached to the 24th MEU conducted a river raid in late November near the village of Hard Duwaish, about 20 miles upriver from Fallujah, according to a Nov. 28 report in The New York Times. The Marine units were deployed earlier in November during the battle of Fallujah to cut off a possible escape route for insurgents after U.S. troops had encircled the city. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214/25 "2007-03-13T22:05:08Z")
From the link– > [@](#): > > M-4 machine gun Wiki comes up empty. Vas is"M-4 machine gun"? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214/26 "2007-03-13T22:15:41Z")
This doesn’t strike me as particularly newsworthy, considering the British army has been using boats on the Shatt al-Arab and surrounding waterways since pretty much the beginning of this damn fool war. ---
**Author:** ![usar\_jag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@usar\_jag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usar_jag)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214/27 "2007-03-14T03:18:22Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Vas is"M-4 machine gun"? 😕 [/QUOTE] [Wiki to the rescue!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_M4) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-swiftboating-of-iraq/395214.md?page=1)