Just want to fit this in here, a propos of nothing at all.
Remember when the USS Cole was bombed off of Aden, South Yemen?
After the bomb-laden zodiac hit, there were deaths and there was a real chance that the ship would sink. The men knew very clearly they were under deadly attack.
Men rushed topside to guard against the possibility of follow-up attack, of course.
Do you know they were forbidden to have live ammunition? I’m serious.
I don’t mean that there had been left-over orders for no ammo —I’m saying that immediately following the attack the Captain specifically forbade possession of live ammo by anyone on deck IN ORDER TO PREVENT ANY UNWARRANTED AGGRESSION OR ACCIDENT. The men were wildly brandishing and waving their weapons around, and no way had any way of firing them.
That’s the kind of discipline and inertia that existed at least at that point, and I think we’re seeing that a bit here, too.
Oh —the USMC explosion in Lebanon? The guards at the gate did not have live ammo in their rifles, and that was for the same reason —to protect against the possibility that there might be an accident or unwarranted arms discharge.
I have heard that the enemy somehow learned that the guards did not have live ammo, but I don’t know if that was true.
Clinton crap? Was it like this under Bush?