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Do not say that!
Occam's Toothbrush points to this Michael Rubin article on the Iraqi forces in TNR with the comment thatMichael Rubin, who spent 9 months in northern Iraq, has some news for the skeptics; war with Iraq will be easy.Bite your tongue! Bite it again, harder! NEVER say such a thing! Saying such things is the absolute surest way to cause God to set up circumstances which will result in us not only being bitten in the National Ass, but gnawed. The circumstances may or may not involve the Iraqi army, or even Sammy. I can agree with the premise that the Former Fourth Largest Army in the World ain't what she used to be. But just sitting here smoking my pipe, I can think of at a few scenarios that're chock full of snakes: what if, while we're merrily beating the hell out of the Elite Republican Guard⢠the Medes and Persians are invading the Kurdish territories? Don't like that one? How about a Hezbollah attack into northern Israel, causing Israel to begin kicking the snot out of Syria, thereby disrupting our Persian Gulf supply lines as shakey allies become indignant? How about the use of gas against our troops? Any idea how living in chem gear degrades combat effectiveness? Sammy doesn't care if a bunch of his people get waxed, and it doesn't take the combined might of the Hammurabi and Tawakalna divisions to deliver chem weapons â you can use artillery, mines, SCUDs or the shorter-range FROG, if it's still around. How about if he succeeds in inserting agents into the U.S. this time? He tried to assassinate Bush, Sr., so he'll probably make a try at G.W. Failing that, what if he attacks Jordan? Or Turkey? Or Kuwait? Any military commander who does not assume that the enemy is willing and able to do terrible things to his force won't be trying to figure what those terrible things are and take countermeasures. It's a fundamental law of military operations that nothing ever goes as planned â just ask Sammy. If you don't believe him, hunt up General Westmoreland and ask him. Or Napoleon. He was going to deal with that "Sepoy General" at Waterloo. There ain't no sech animal as an "easy" military operation. "Plan for the worst, hope for the best." Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-08-30 |
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