Operation Misdirection

teh
This is pure speculation on my part but I think the U.S. military in Iraq was just played.

Remember the grand photo-op, I mean air assault, in the Samarra area north of Baghdad dubbed Operation Swarmer. Well, Operation Swarmer was a failure, not a single shot was fired and while some “suspects” were picked up and a few samll arms caches found it was a lot of effort for nothing other than some cool pictures of helicopters.

But get this. Not all that far away, a large formation of Iraqi insurgents stormed a police station and freed some detainees. They were opposed only by Iraqi police:

Baghdad — Insurgents stormed a jail about dawn Tuesday in the Sunni Muslim heartland north of Baghdad, killing at least 17 policemen and a courthouse guard. Authorities said all 33 prisoners in the lockup were freed and 10 attackers were killed in the battle.

As many as 100 insurgent fighters -- armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades -- stormed the judicial compound in Muqdadiyah, about 100 kilometres northeast of the capital. The assault began after the attackers fired a mortar round into the police and court complex, said police Brigadier Ali al-Jabouri.

After torching the police station, the insurgents detonated a string of roadside bombs as they fled, taking the bodies of many of their dead comrades with them, police said.

A formation of 100 insurgents operating in a coordinated effort is a big deal. I’ve not heard of such an organized attack since Mission Accomplished™.

Operation Swarmer was supposedly launched based on some sort of homegrown Iraqi intelligence. Hmmm. Could that bad intel have been planted as a distraction while the real insurgent effort was many miles away? Probably the two had nothing directly to do with each other but it makes for an intriguing conspiracy theory. This is the internet after all.