[BenLurkin]

Agreed. Our soldiers sailors marines and airmen should, IMO, never deploy unarmed. This kind of thing drives me nuts.

[COEXERJ145]

The good thing is, at least according to Fox, is we're scaling back our operations because of the Indonesian government's "demands". They moved the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln away from the coast and have reduced the number of personal going ashore. We'll probably pull out all our forces from Indonesia fairly soon and concentrate on countries that actually appreciate our help.

[sarasmom]

I "deployed" for two years to Germany, and was unarmed for the duration.
Terrorists were actively targeting USA military members at that time.
Put the footrest up in your armchair.
You will feel much more comfortable!

[Ramius]

Our soldiers sailors marines and airmen should, IMO, never deploy unarmed.

While I basically agree, there are simply times when the moment requires a special approach to a situation.

In a former life, as a Coastie, I once had to deploy on a boarding party to conduct a boarding of a U.S. sailboat that was unfortunately lying at anchor in Mexican waters. It really needed to happen, but the state department at the time required that we be unarmed, and the cutter had to stick offshore in international water. Seems there's this little problem where delivering armed troops unauthorized into the national waters of another nation is technically "an act of war". The small boat delivered us the 12 miles to the boat and we did the boarding, basically only armed with clubs. I've never felt so vulnerable. But that's the way it had to be.

[Stringfellow Hawke]

Think U.S.S. Cole, where they had our brave men and women manning guns with no bullets in them and terrorist monkeys coming along side the ship with tons of explosives in a boat.

We'll never win the war on terror with an idiot for a leader.

A nation can be measured by the leaders we have in charge. Right now I'd say we're a nation of 'compassionate conservative weenies'.