On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 11:18:12 -0600, "Swingman" wrote:

It's a war, Andy .

It's not - it's the on-going occupation of an unruly civil population.
The biggest single lesson of NI was the disaster of Bloody Sunday,
that kicked so much of it off. The Paras are great as soldiers for
fighting wars, but they're lousy policemen. This is _not_ a war - you
can tell this, because you're not allowed to get the big toys out. A
civil situation like this needs a different approach and it's not one
that infantry are trained for.

.. and if you were really paying attention you would know
that it is NOT the RPG so much as the IED that is the cause of the flurry to
jury rig armor

Sure, but we're talking about plywood. Plywood _does_ have uses
against RPGs, odd though this might appear at first.

Blame Congress and previous administrations that designed, budgeted and
built them, not the current battle planners and those executing the plan.

I'd extend it to the military planners. They're supposed to be the
experts, not Congress itself.