New Plan: Giant Trench To Surround Baghdad

[kalen]

A brilliant piece of military strategy reminicient of the times when moats surrounded castles.


Iraq's interior ministry has announced plans to increase security in Baghdad by digging trenches around the city, and surrounding it with checkpoints.

...


A spokesman said the security plan was designed to prevent insurgents from getting into and out of Baghdad.

But correspondents say it could take months to dig trenches round the city.

The Iraqi capital has a circumference of around 80km (50 miles).

Brigadier Abdul Karim of the interior ministry told the BBC that hundreds of minor roads would be sealed off under the plan, so that the city could only be accessed via 28 checkpoints.

He said equipment to detect weapons and explosives would be installed at key locations.

The plan, he said, would start coming into effect in less than three weeks.

Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5349398.stm)to BBC story.

[Tailgater]

They should hire locals to dig it. The trench would be done fast, give the economy a little boost, and occupy their time. I'm not sure about making it a moat though. I'm waiting for the "fill it with pork suggestions".:D

[Tony]

A brilliant piece of military strategy reminicient of the times when moats surrounded castles.


Good thing man has yet to learn the physics of flying or create a flying machine. :rolleyes:

[Darth Rotor]

A brilliant piece of military strategy reminicient of the times when moats surrounded castles.
Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5349398.stm)to BBC story.
Fill the moat with water and pirhanas. This approach would provide an eco friendly way for the police, the militias, and various others to dispose of bodies without overburdening the morgues. We complain sometimes about the medeival nature of the Islamic world, but maybe it is their natural idiom. Moats and castles fit the culture.

DR

[andyandy]

hey why not go the whole hog and wall the whole country up? make the whole place a prison....we can send all our convicts there, then in a couple of hundred years it'll turn out OK - just like Australia did :D

:duck:

[Darth Rotor]

hey why not go the whole hog and wall the whole country up? make the whole place a prison....we can send all our convicts there, then in a couple of hundred years it'll turn out OK - just like Australia did :D

No surf, no roos. There are some real problems with your plan, mate. :) The devil is in the details.

DR

[Dave1001]

A brilliant piece of military strategy reminicient of the times when moats surrounded castles.



Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5349398.stm)to BBC story.

Easy to mock, but doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.

[IllegalArgument]

Sorry, but this screams to me "We can't control the situtation, so we are going to waste lots of time on this useless project because it sound really impressive."

It may work for a month after they build it, but maintaning it will be a pain.

[IllegalArgument]

Easy to mock, but doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.

As per your sig: GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!

[fuelair]

They should hire locals to dig it. The trench would be done fast, give the economy a little boost, and occupy their time. I'm not to sure about making it a moat though. I'm waiting for the "fill it with pork suggestions".:D

I'm a sucker for these things so "and while they're at it, fill the thing with pigs' blood!!":rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :)

[fishbob]

I'm a sucker for these things so "and while they're at it, fill the thing with pigs' blood!!":rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :)

Lets see - 50 miles, by about 100 feet wide by 8 or so feet deep at about 3.4 gallons of blood per pig would require somewhere in the vicinity of 62 million pigs. Of course percolation into the sand and evaporation would require another couple of million pigs per day to maintain.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

[Mycroft]

Lets see - 50 miles, by about 100 feet wide by 8 or so feet deep at about 3.4 gallons of blood per pig would require somewhere in the vicinity of 62 million pigs. Of course percolation into the sand and evaporation would require another couple of million pigs per day to maintain.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Pig blood plasma, it's a renewable resource.

[Tony]

Lets see - 50 miles, by about 100 feet wide by 8 or so feet deep at about 3.4 gallons of blood per pig would require somewhere in the vicinity of 62 million pigs. Of course percolation into the sand and evaporation would require another couple of million pigs per day to maintain.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Iraq would become the largest global exporter of pork. Bacon sandwiches for everyone!!!

[fishbob]

Uh Oh - I left out conversion of cubic feet to gallons.

It should be 497 million initial fill pigs and about 20 million pigs per day to maintain.

This is clearly an outrageous waste of public funds.

[Dave1001]

If we build such a trench, and have french troops guard it, we should make sure not to leave a hole in the trench where Baghdad borders Saddam City. :D

[Tailgater]

Good thing man has yet to learn the physics of flying or create a flying machine. :rolleyes:

Hmm, flying suicide bombers. That is scary. Oh, we already have those.

[Darth Rotor]

Uh Oh - I left out conversion of cubic feet to gallons.

It should be 497 million initial fill pigs and about 20 million pigs per day to maintain.

This is clearly an outrageous waste of public funds.
US Congress will fund it: standard pork barrel spending.





Sorry, someone had to.

DR

[Azure]

Good thing man has yet to learn the physics of flying or create a flying machine. :rolleyes:

Why, are the insurgents gonna parachute in?

[Azure]

US Congress will fund it: standard pork barrel spending.

Sorry, someone had to.

DR

They're already funding enough pork as is.

A little more wouldn't do much. :D

[geni]

Morocco tried something like this. It sort of works.

[Tony]

Why, are the insurgents gonna parachute in?

Wow.

[Azure]

Wow.

Or fly in? I was unaware that insurgents have such advanced technology.

[BPSCG]

Lets see - 50 miles, by about 100 feet wide by 8 or so feet deep at about 3.4 gallons of blood per pig would require somewhere in the vicinity of 62 million pigs. Of course percolation into the sand and evaporation would require another couple of million pigs per day to maintain.Okay, just thinking of the smell made me have to sit down and put my head between my legs.

'Course for people who bath once every six months, and then usually with sand, smell might not be a big issue... (http://www.solargeneral.com/pdf/ForeignersAroundTheWorld.pdf#search=%22foreigners% 20around%20the%20world%22)

[fuelair]

US Congress will fund it: standard pork barrel spending.





Sorry, someone had to.

DR

Halliburton can handle that in a walk!!

[Tony]

Or fly in? I was unaware that insurgents have such advanced technology.

Wow, just wow.

[Azure]

Wow, just wow.

I guess their technology hasn't advanced that much. ;)

[WildCat]

Morocco tried something like this. It sort of works.
Actually it's already been done in some places in Iraq, such as Fallujah. It's actually quite effective. It may surprise you, but terrorists don't generally fly planes in and land on the street to smuggle munitions into a city.

[peptoabysmal]

I do hope they try to catapult a few over before they figure it out. Trap shooting of insurgents. Sweet! I'm gonna go polish up my Browning 12 ga right now.

http://indigo.ie/~gerryq/Skeet/skeet.htm

PULL!!

[bjb]

'Course for people who bath once every six months, and then usually with sand, smell might not be a big issue...

I'm getting sick and tired of these jokes about the French! Come on, nearly 30% of them use deoderant now.

[Dorian Gray]

They should hire locals to dig it. The trench would be done fast, give the economy a little boost, and occupy their time. I'm not sure about making it a moat though. I'm waiting for the "fill it with pork suggestions".:DNo, they should hire Mexicans to dig it.


BUt wait! Moats? I know parts of their society are still in the 1500s, but I doubt moats will be that effective.

[clarsct]

Well, I doubt a moat in the desert...

A 40 foot deep trench with sharp, pointy objects at the bottom may work, though.

Wouldn't be easier to lay a minefield?

[Zombified]

So those insurgents are all from out of town, are they?

[WildCat]

So those insurgents are all from out of town, are they?
The point is to keep new weapons from coming into the city by restricting the entrance points.

It's not dissimilar to how trucks traveling into New York City are inspected as they enter tunnels/bridges. Of course, being an island NYC already has its moat.

This really isn't that hard to understand, is it? As I've said, it has been used successfully in other areas of Iraq, obviously much smaller cities than Baghdad though.

[Mephisto]

Easy to mock, but doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.

Especially if they employ big trolls at each drawbridge. ;)

[chriswl]

Cities have moved on a bit from the middle ages. Baghdad has a population of six million, similar to London. No way can they actually search every vehicle entering an area that big.

And who would actually want to search a suspicious vehicle in Baghdad? Won't these checkpoints make great suicide-bomb targets? I'll bet the "border guards" will just stand well back and watch the traffic. Its just window dressing.