n Saturday 29 March 2003 07:21, Collins Richey wrote: > On Sat, 29 Mar 2003 06:50:41 -0800 > > Ken Moffat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Do you feel a bit mislead, judging by the amount of resistance, and > > the lack of open-armed welcome by the Iraqis? Our intentions may be > > good, but something smells. > > Not in the least. I don't ever believe that massive groups of Arabs > would invite the "great Satan" into their midst and welcome him with > open arms. Nor do I believe that anyone in the administration would > seriously believe this to be the case. The whole scenario is > quite complex, and it's an over simplification to say "it's the oil" or > "it's the weapons of mass destruction" or "it's freedom for the Iraqis" > or "it's Al Queda (sp?)", etc. It's all of these things and more. Some > aspects of the campaign are no doubt tied up with classified information > that we are not privy to, and that's as it should be, although that irks > the CIA baiters no end.
My 3 cents worth. First this should go to the general list. Secondly, after 22 years in the military I'm a little disqusted by most of this even some of the troops behavior. I still can see the pictures of some of the maintenance personnel captured by the Iraq's whining that they hadn't come to Iraq to shoot anyone but to fix things. Then there were the parents on TV complaining that their boy hadn't joined the Army to go in harms way but for a college education. The generals? You'd have to go all the back to the our Civil War and the campaigns of George McClellan to equal their non ability. They have broken just about every rule in the book. They over estimated Iraqi civilian support for War? Instead of an adoring populas waving palm fronds they have been met with "Where's the food and what are you doing in my country?" Ignoring the lessons of Stalingrad, Moscow and Berlin they assumed that Iraqis wouldn't put up much resistance against a foreign power on their soil. After taking less than 20 casualties they slowed the advance on Bagdag. A major military blunder which Stonewall Jackson and General Sherman wouldn't have made. In Jackson's words the battle belongs to whoever gets there the firstest with the mostest. Once engaged with an inferior force you neve, NEVER give him time to back away in good order to reform and dig in. The cost in lives becomes greater than if you had pushed ahead. Grant learned that at Petersburg.Let's not forget the great plan to over awe the Iraqis by reducing Bagdag to rubble. The battles Stalingrad and Berlin demonstrated that cities that have been rubblized are great places to defend. The rubble interferes with the deployment of tanks and massed formations of troops. Despite this we keep hearing of the continuous bombing and the effect it has on the Iraqis. Maybe our party circuit generals should take a little time off from the night life to do a little research on just what was the effect that Hitler's bombing of London had on the British or the destruction of Berlin had on the Germans or Stalingrad on the Russians. Then there's the supply lines. Attacking the enemy's lines of communication was has always been a time honored tactic even before the time of Ceaser. A small force in the rear can do more to slow or even stop an advance than divisions in the front. Note the campaigns of Stonewall Jackson and Jeb Stuart. Yet, our Washington party circuit generals were caught completely by surprise by Iraqi irregular forces attacks on the supply lines that the generals has slowed down themselves. To combat this they have had to divert huge numbers of troops to guard the supply lines and ask for 140,000 more troops. Shades of General McClellan! Then there's the top of the command and his toadies. Little Georgie used his daddy's influence to duck the draft. At the time he got in the Texas Air National Guard there were no slots available. He scored lower of the officer exams than many others yet he was commissioned while others with higher scores were not commissioned and were sent to Nam. Thus our commander-in-chief, like the one before him, is a cowardly draft dodger sending better men and women to die in Iraq while all the Bushes remain safely in the US. And the reason for the war? Who knows? The day after 9/11 Iraq was accused as a responsible party. Little Georgie started preaching war with Iraq as the "War on Terrorism." Unfortunately, for Jr. and the toadies Iraq seemed to be about the only Arab country without any links to the terrorists, unlike some of our friends like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt. So the war became the "War Against Weapons of Mass Destruction." Bush immediately took to the airways claiming that Iraq had tried to buy nuclear fuel from Nigeria. Bush used that as justification. Problem - middle CIA analysis told the New York Times that the documents were forgeries, that the CIA knew it and that they had told little George that before he went on TV with this proof. He also claimed that some aluminum pipe the Iraqis had was for nuclear weapons. Not So said the UN inspectors, the pipe was for rockets of the type that hadn't been banned. So the war took another turn. Weapons of mass destruction were now only biological or gas. Total substance to this? 12 gas empty warheads that could have been left overs from the war with Iran. Once again the war gets a new name now the "War to Liberate the Iraqi People." Only trouble is from news reports the Iraqis prefer their home grown devil to liberation by the "Great Devil" in the west. This isn't over yet and little georgie is threatening both Syria and Iran. Nice. As for little George's 61% approval rating, I'm sure Hitler had the same approval rating when he marched into Chekosovika, Poland, and Russia. The same could be said about the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. I may be a peace nik, but at least I'm not a jingo or a born again non christian who can think of no reason for this war than the slogan "support our troops." While I support the grunts in the field who go where they're ordered, i wouldn't extend that support to the incompetent generals and coward in the White House. As far as the jingos go "REMEMBER THE MAINE." You can take pride in that and in the fact that while this government can not afford to help seniors pay for the prescription drugs that they depend on we can afford to fire 300 2 million dollar missles into Bagdag in one night. But, then George and the special interests who bought the White House for from the jingos are rich and can pay for all the drugs they want out of their trillion dollar tax cut. Lee _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe/Suspend/Etc -> http://www.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
