Re: Afghanistani Warfare.

["Eric Benson" <e_r_benson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Only if you believe we will respond to this with the same lackluster,
>weeble-wooble attitude that plagued us concerning our involvement there.

Sorry, while I'm patriotic, I'm not blind.  We had a lackluster, 
weeble-wooble attitude towards the USS Cole.  The US has a proven ability to 
micromanage any crisis.  Since our last experience in micromanagement 
(Vietnam), we have made the media into an irresponsible branch of the 
government.  The media is helping now, but I don't expect the media's fit 
with responsibility to carry through an entire conflict.

>Hint: A half-assed policing action in a country carried out by small
>fraction of non-elite military troops isn't the same as dropping the > 
>101st Airborne, the Marine Corps, and several carrier groups onto enemy 
>territory, pissed as hell, and with a solid plan of attack.

Uh, minor problem.  We don't have a target.  I'm not sure that we have a 
solid plan of attack, either, for that matter.  If you do have information 
on them, I'd be curious to hear them.

We will be operating at the end of a long supply line, a supply line that is 
vulnerable to attack.  We did not adequetely upgrade our sea lift capability 
post-Desert Storm.  Desert Storm stressed our airlift capability in a 
situation where we had cooperative bases at each end and inbetween.  Will we 
have reliable bases at the other end?  TBA.

This isn't a conventional war with nicely drawn battle lines like Desert 
Storm.  We have a moving target in a country that is cooperating with him.  
At any point, he can cross international boundaries faster than we can pay 
tolls on the George Washington Bridge.

-Eric

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