<OT> We won't back down...

[Lee]

n Saturday 29 March 2003 07:21, Collins Richey wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Mar 2003 06:50:41 -0800
>
> Ken Moffat <kmoffat at drizzle.com> 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