Just the facts please
Well I may have been wrong.
I admited it, I wonder if the people who caused (or at least contributed to) my being wrong will do it. It seems that the media (according to http://www.nationalreview.com/editorial/editors200412100958.asp which admittedly is only an editoral and only one source - which was my problem, I only looked at two sources for what I posted yesterday) may have blown out of proportion Secretary Rumsfeld's attitude/comments the other day during the town hall meeting with the troops in Kuwait. According to this he committed several armored humvees currently assigned security duties at the Pentagon. The question was allegidly planted by a media representative and the answer was quoted inaccurately or incompletely. Typical. However I wonder if his office is in the Pentagon ...
There was another piece this morning saying that a Maine National Guard unit claimed it had all of it's equipment and it was fully prepared for it's deployment. However it was an Engineer Brigade so a great deal of it's engineer equipment is vintage (technologically speaking) WWII anyway. The most effective and safest way to clear a minefield (for example) is still an engineer on his knees prodding the ground with a non-metallic probe (a stick). There are more high tech ways but they're not as safe and not as reliable (they may leave unexploded mines behind).
And the insurgents aren't stupid, Engineers deployed to that theater will be mainly doing two kinds of work, IED (improvised explosive device - home made land mines and bombs) removal and infrastructure (schools, power plants, water treatment plants, hospitals and clinics, etc) construction. While directly attacking engineers doing the former may produce an immediate and rather violent reaction, only an idiot will attack the engineers building those structures. At least until they're finished or nearly so that they have to rebuild it again.
However I still can't shake the feeling that the clowns are now running the circus and it's only a matter of time before the monkeys get into the cash box.
I admited it, I wonder if the people who caused (or at least contributed to) my being wrong will do it. It seems that the media (according to http://www.nationalreview.com/editorial/editors200412100958.asp which admittedly is only an editoral and only one source - which was my problem, I only looked at two sources for what I posted yesterday) may have blown out of proportion Secretary Rumsfeld's attitude/comments the other day during the town hall meeting with the troops in Kuwait. According to this he committed several armored humvees currently assigned security duties at the Pentagon. The question was allegidly planted by a media representative and the answer was quoted inaccurately or incompletely. Typical. However I wonder if his office is in the Pentagon ...
There was another piece this morning saying that a Maine National Guard unit claimed it had all of it's equipment and it was fully prepared for it's deployment. However it was an Engineer Brigade so a great deal of it's engineer equipment is vintage (technologically speaking) WWII anyway. The most effective and safest way to clear a minefield (for example) is still an engineer on his knees prodding the ground with a non-metallic probe (a stick). There are more high tech ways but they're not as safe and not as reliable (they may leave unexploded mines behind).
And the insurgents aren't stupid, Engineers deployed to that theater will be mainly doing two kinds of work, IED (improvised explosive device - home made land mines and bombs) removal and infrastructure (schools, power plants, water treatment plants, hospitals and clinics, etc) construction. While directly attacking engineers doing the former may produce an immediate and rather violent reaction, only an idiot will attack the engineers building those structures. At least until they're finished or nearly so that they have to rebuild it again.
However I still can't shake the feeling that the clowns are now running the circus and it's only a matter of time before the monkeys get into the cash box.
posted by banzai at 13:19
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