[monday]

"But political BS prevents us from getting the troops what they need in anything like a timely manner."

The reason is almost no one sees the Iraqi conflict as even close to the same life and death struggle that WWII was. If they did, the BS would be cut out immediately and the troops would be getting the best we could give them in the most efficient way we could give it to them.

Politicians are morons, but then I suppose we are morons too, since we voted for them. Alas, people get the government they deserve.

America is fighting an inefficient war/police action, in Iraq because unlike WWII, we are not united in our efforts.

[blanknoone]

The other thing to note is that Iraq is not the first, and will not be the last, 'peacekeeping' or 'nation building' exercise. And our military is not equipped for it. In fact, I think we could make the case (and this is a whole separate discussion) that it shouldn't be. Our military is for fighting and winning wars and these peacekeeping missions dull the sharp edge we need. There is a case to be made that there should be seperate 'peacekeeping' units either within or outside the DOD.

Regardless, we have the mission, and we will for sometime (How many years ago did Clinton promise Bosnia would only be a 12 month mission?). Our military is getting much better at it with experience...which may not be a good thing. All that experience is experience doing something other than preparing to fight and win our nation's wars.

[babyface00]

This is probably a crazy idea, but in a way, it worked for Linux...

We have enough people on this board who "get it". We likely have plenty of contacts who are or who know soldiers and marines in the field. They know what they need more than any of us.

Maybe we need a new regiment of Pajamadeen as a sort of "working group" to solicit comments from the men and women in the field, come up with some workable ideas, perhaps put together some "proof of concept" paperwork. Maybe even come up with a prototype or at least some drawings.

I'm sure there are engineers on this board who would be willing to contribute. That and contacts in the automotive and manufacturing industries. Plenty of "nuts and bolts" mechanics too, I'd wager.

Maybe we couldn't actually get a vehicle produced, but we could start the ball rolling. I bet we could accomplish a lot.

Rather than a Linus keeping everyone on track, perhaps we could assemble a group of patriotic experts to guide things along who are representative of several key aspects.

I'm sort of thinking out loud here, but isn't this the sort of thing that makes America what it is? We don't sit around complaining that the government isn't fixing problems, we come together and do what has to be done, hauling the politicians kicking and screaming behind if necessary.