[Hemingway's Ghost]

So, you think our force in Iraq was one of world history's great military machines? I wish I could share your enthusiasm, but beating the lowly Iraqi army, and not even having had to face the Iraqi air force, such as it was, somehow fails to generate such enthusiasm in me. Maybe you possess some secret info the rest of us lack.

Careful, mister. I have it on good authority (first-hand from an F/A-18 pilot) that our men and women patrolling the skies faced some pretty stiff opposition from the Iraqi air defenses. Perhaps the Iraqi military was no match for ours this time around, but it was far from defenseless.

[general_re]

Lookee here - there's a freeper handle I haven't seen in a dog's age ;)

[mrustow]

So, you think our force in Iraq was one of world history's great military machines? I wish I could share your enthusiasm, but beating the lowly Iraqi army, and not even having had to face the Iraqi air force, such as it was, somehow fails to generate such enthusiasm in me. Maybe you possess some secret info the rest of us lack.

Careful, mister. I have it on good authority (first-hand from an F/A-18 pilot) that our men and women patrolling the skies faced some pretty stiff opposition from the Iraqi air defenses. Perhaps the Iraqi military was no match for ours this time around, but it was far from defenseless.

We lost how many planes? Even with inferior, affirmative action female pilots patrolling the skies? Besides, you don't quote your source as speaking of the Iraqi air force, but only of "air defenses," which, far from refuting me, would seem to support my point.

[johnb838]

Perhaps the Iraqi military was no match for ours this time around, but it was far from defenseless.

In any case I have to believe that Ol' Blood & Guts would have appreciated our headlong rush to overrun Baghdad, Tikrit, and points north. No army has EVER gone so far, so fast. And moving a column is inherently a low-tech business.