Anti-Iraq rhetoric outpaces reality

Washington Post ^ | February 24, 2002 | Walter Pincus & Karen DeYoung

[Viet Vet in Augusta GA]

At Boeing Co.'s high-tech factory in St. Charles, Mo., three shifts are working 24 hours a day turning out smart bombs to replenish Air Force and Navy inventories that ran dangerously low during the Afghan war.

Pentagon planners say it will take six months to produce enough Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), the precision systems that guided 1,000-pound bombs to Taliban and al Qaeda targets, to contemplate an attack on Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

[Viet Vet in Augusta GA]

The Com-Post, publisher of the Pentagon Papers, gives aid and comfort to the enemy again by revealing our strategic strengths and weaknesses. Why not publish detailed maps and codewords? Note the pessimism a la "the quagmire of Afghanistan's cruel winter".

[RippleFire]

At Boeing Co.'s high-tech factory in St. Charles, Mo., three shifts are working 24 hours a day turning out smart bombs to replenish Air Force and Navy inventories that ran dangerously low during the Afghan war.

Thanks to Bubba Clinton.

[Viet Vet in Augusta GA]

Exactly

[mict42]

Let's face it. The unbridled right to the first ammendment goes to the leftist media moguls. They use their unfetered voice to further the liberal agenda whenever and wherever they wish. Here is a good example. The threat, alone, of immediate action against Saddam Insane may have caused him to slow his production of poison ladened toys and start gathering them about him in some God For Saken hell hole of an Iraqi cave.The good and patriotic Washington Roast has given the Bastard of Bagdad the feedom of mind to continue hatching his basket of evil eggs free from the fear that the U.S. will start it's Great Evil Egg Hunt any moment.This gives him maybe that added few months to produce the Big One. Thanks, Post, for once again displaying the flag, you know, the one that is Red, White, Blue and YELLOW!

[LarryM]

I view this as wishful thinking on the part of the left. We are going in a lot sooner.

[meenie]

There is a slight problem that was never worked out in Aghanistan that should be considered in Iraq. Both have underground facilities where the leader can hide while the bombing campaign continues. With a small number of US ground troops, the leader is able to escape while the countryside gets pounded into oblivion.

This does not make sense. The groundpounders are as important as the missiles being manufactured in St. Charles. If we make the object of our attention, Sadaam, then we should get him.

Intelligence should be able to pinpoint his location and the 82nd should be able to seize him. Until we have this capability, we have no business going in. The Yugoslavia and Afghanistan campaigns should have taught us the ineffectiveness of strict aerial campaigns without supporting ground troops.

Both campaigns have ended with no clear victory and the exit strategy in doubt.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[snopercod]

At Boeing Co.'s high-tech factory in St. Charles, Mo., three shifts are working 24 hours a day turning out smart bombs to replenish Air Force and Navy inventories that ran dangerously low during the Afghan war.

That's curious. I went to the boeing.com website and searched for jobs in Missouri. There were only 33 jobs posted, none related to missile production that I could tell.

Where do reporters get this misinformation? Or do they just make up these articles...

[Cobra64]

The Com-Post, publisher of the Pentagon Papers, gives aid and comfort to the enemy again by revealing our strategic strengths and weaknesses. Why not publish detailed maps and codewords?

There are a lot of people who think the GAO case against V.P. Cheney re Enron is justified. They say, "All Americans should know everything the government is doing."

My past responses have been, "So you endorse having network TV cameras in the Pentagon War/Situation Rooms?? You want the enemy to know what our strategy is. You want Americans to DIE?" So have replied "Yes, we are a free people and we have the right to know everything our government is doing... blah... blah...blah."

It turns my stomach at how stupid people can be. The have about a much common sense as a stump (Al Gore).

[Cobra64]

Mic, You have a terrific way with words in making your point. I'm a sarcastic summa-beech too, but not as poetically creative as you. Are you of British extraction by any chance? Regards.

[Cobra64]

That's curious. I went to the boeing.com website and searched for jobs in Missouri. There were only 33 jobs posted, none related to missile production that I could tell.

And the answere is... (drum roll)...

"Boeing filled those positions on September 12th."

[First_Salute]

From a Boeing Co. story dated April 4, 2001 ---

" Boeing produces the JDAM in a state-of-the-art, lean, high-rate facility in St. Charles, Mo."