Moderator: coldharvest
Penta wrote:Convinced as so many Americans are that their armed forces are the best in the world, I wonder if it ever occurs to them that there might be reasons (other than not being too closely associated with the wicked imperialists) why some other countries don't want to put their forces under US command.
It's undoubtedly true of the British military. They know US forces are infinitely better equipped than any others, but they do not want to be led by the US, particularly because of the rules of engagement, which they consider encourage counter-productive, trigger-happy behaviour, putting men and women on the ground in far more danger than necessary. And fuelling the cycle of violence, thereby making everyone's jobs more difficult.
As Captain Donald Francis, a spokesman for the Multinational Division (South-East), said in a recent briefing: "Every time we kill an Iraqi we will create a nationalist." The mission is not to kill but to neutralise the so-called anti-Iraqi forces (who of course are nearly all Iraqis).
Here's a quote from a journalist who spent time with British forces between Basra and Amara:
One evening I drove with British soldiers through downtown Basra, escorting a couple of American National Guards to the Basra Palace compound. Traffic was heavy, and the larger American sat twitching in the back. He wished he had taken the "chopper" the few miles up the road. An ambulance approached, its blue lights cutting through the darkness. A soldier up on top of our Land Rover waved the ambulance on. Peering out of the window on the back door, the American panicked: "Whoa," he said, "they should have shot that guy." No vehicle, ambulance or otherwise, can drive past a US convoy for fear of suicide bombers.
Back in the camp at Basra Air Base, I described the scene to a senior British officer, who sighed: "Don't they see it's a chicken-and-egg situation".
mach wrote:sounds like a good idea to me...find something wrong with it first..
whats it to yuh'?
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