"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
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.

Your distinction is theorectical, impractical and spoken like a civilian. A
rose by any other name ... when the bullets are flying, it's a _war_ to
those having to duck..

.. 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.

No argument, as I said, we used chain link fence ... but not as "armor".

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.

Congress appropriates the funding and approves, cuts, or increase budgets
for the military planners/designers based on administration. IIRC, The
previous administration did a lot of cutting in that area.

Nonetheless, all these current equipment design decisions were made years
ago. The military commander has to fight with the tools available, and
improvise from there, which is what is being done, and has been done in
every war. The equipment lag time, often based on "lessons learned", is
never in favor of those who have to fight now, never has been, and never
will be.

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