When I read the news report yesterday, I knew that this thread would be brought back to the top by P-A-F, who’s still angry at me (for over two months now) for laughing at his mate who made a stupid comment.
So let’s look put this in perspective. Those of you in Oz may be wondering why there is a sudden increase in reporting of attacks against Australians in Southern Iraq in recent weeks. The Australians moved into Dhi Qar province in around June last year. Up until the 23rd of April this year, the number of attacks against the Australians in Dhi Qar was…
(wait for it)…..
Zero!
That’s right. Nada, zip, nil! Not a single one! Then we had the one on the 23rd of April, one the next day (on the guys recovering the vehicle from the day before), and one yesterday. So now that’s three! That’s why there are suddenly news reports on all this!
Obviously, there ARE other attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces in Dhi Qar, but they’re still very low in comparison with most of the other provinces. You only have to read the news to hear of Coalition and Iraqi deaths almost every day. Where are most of these? Baghdad, Anbar, Fallujah, etc.
An Nasiriyah and Dhi Qar hardly ever get a mention. (Btw, this is all open source stuff. Do some Googling if you don’t believe me).
And then let us look at these attacks that make Tallil such a DANGEROUS place to be (according to P-A-F). The one in late April was North of Nasiriyah.
The western outskits of An Nasiriyah for those who don't know is around 5 miles from the threshold.
Tallil is close to 10 miles to the SOUTH west of Nasiriyah. (Since P-A-F considers Basra “just over the next hill” (200km away), a doubling of distance and a 45 degree difference in direction is probably nothing). Nasiriyah is a town of almost 1 million people, so you can assume that the attack was around 20 km from Tallil. (In fact, the attack was greater than 20km away).
I can say from similar experience that a blast 20 km away wouldn’t have been heard in Tallil, let alone pose any danger to anything there.
So all of this, IMO, STILL makes Tallil one of the safest places to be in Iraq. And yes, I’ll continue to laugh at any w@nker who implies that there is added stress in landing at Tallil because “we’re still in a combat zone”.
Especially when he said that at a time before there were ANY attacks on Aussies in the area!
P-A-F, what makes you more amusing than your mate is your persistence in trying to “prove” me wrong (it’s obviously a problem for you that someone can have a different opinion). The thread was dead for 4 weeks before you posted the April news report; and dead another three weeks before you posted this one. All because you’re trying to try to make a point against someone who laughed at one of your mates!
Let it go mate. Nobody else cares about this except you (and me). I've suggested before that we do this via PM. Save the other readers and the Mods the trouble.
DIVOSH!