To: Alberta's Child
When your son signs up and makes it as a Ranger, parents should be reasonably secure in the knowledge that the Commander in Chief will give them all the military support available to complete their mission. Clinton did not. The father, whom I interviewed, had every right to expect that. The Commander in Chief should have been relieved of his duties as should have Les Aspin and Warren Christopher.
The Black Hawk raid that led to the deaths of 18 Americans was supposed to be just that: a raid. Get in, take prisoners, get out, all in under 1/2 hour. None of the Rangers even brought their night vision goggles, as they expected to be back home well before dark. The idea that the force would be pinned down and need rescue by ground forces was not even considered. Pakistani heavy tanks, and Malaysian APCs were available, and were eventually used, but it took time to organize. Not for political reasons, but just because Army command didn't see the need to have the force on standby because they did not forsee how badly things might go wrong.
To: doug from upland
With all due respect, everyone in the United States of America with an IQ over 38 knew that Bill Clinton was an @sshole long before he was elected. Many of them may have deceived themselves, and many of them were such @ssholes themselves that they voted for him anyway, but nobody had any reason to expect Bill Clinton or anyone in his administration to behave like anything other than the flaming @ssholes they were.
Some people I know were prudent enough to bail out of the military the minute Clinton was elected. If I had been in the military at the time, I would have done the same thing. I can also assure you that if I had died in Somalia, my father would have written a letter just like that to every media outlet in the country. Except that it would have been addressed to me, not Bill Clinton -- and he would have asked me how I could be so naive that I would put my life in the hands of such dishonorable, incompetent people.
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