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I initially responded to some guy who insisted this is all about how we have to "prove" to the nation that Bill Clinton was a Commie and that all the services--save the Marines--licked his boots.

I didn't like this either. In fact,it pissed me off! Guess what,though? I wasn't pissed off at him BECAUSE HE WAS RIGHT! As bad as I hate to admit it,the USMC ARE the only branch that had the balls to stand up to Bubba bin Bombing,and I would consider it a personal honor to ever be granted the chance to shake the hand of the retired USMC Commadant who did this and to thank him. The USMC ARE the only branch of serivce that maintained their standards,their traditions,and their training.

If you have read many of my posts about the modern US military,you would have read where General Shelton (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) should be immediatelly and FORMALLY "drummed-out" of the US Army,right down to the public ceremony where a senior officer tears off all his badges of rank and medals,and the drummer beats time as he marches off base in disgrace,losing ALL pay and benefits. THIS is when I'm in a good mood. When I'm pissed,I want him shot be a firing squad for criminal derlection of duty that will SURELY cause the deaths of young soldiers that wouldn't have died if they had been properly trained and led. The Navy is even worse,making Shelton look like John Wayne. There is NO case where the Naval brass weren't anxious to bend over and grab their ankles anytime Bubba cleared his throat.

The FACT is we've got a VERY tough job to do, the parameters of which I do NOT think any of us, from our leadership on down, really understand right now.

Why don't you think they understand it? I understand it perfectly,and I am just a former NCO. I'm even willing to give them advise for free,if they give me a rifle in return and let me get close enough to make some personal observations. Some of these young guys are just WAAAYY too damn cocky!

We're headed into completely unfamiliar territory, and I suggest that within a year or so we are going to see that NO ONE had the answers immediately after 9/11/01.

Unfamiliar to who? I was running around in the jungles of Laos and Cambodia doing this crap over 30 years ago,and I damn sure wasn't the only one!

We will see that it's going to take the combined efforts of all the uniformed services, and a willingness to adjust to this new situation.

This is only news to you and others who have never served. I'll bet you didn't even know that the US Army SF and Force Recon from the USMC sometimes train together,did you? That's right,there are USSF people running around Camp Legune,and USMC Force Recon people going to the Special Warfare School at Bragg. All YOU see as a civilian is different uniforms. This blinds you to the fact that there are professionals wearing the uniforms who understand that the ONLY important thing is victory.

Therefore, chest-thumping, p*ssing contests and finger pointing at each other is stupid and pointless.

I guess it might look like that to a outsider,but this is just a game we like to play with each other,and WE all know it is just a game. I LOVE to do stuff like bust a Marine officers chops by giving him a BMG to carry,and then ask him how he can call himself a Marine if he carries a weapon without a bayonet lug. The last one I pulled this on was a young Captain,and he agreed with me. The next time I saw him he had a bayonet duct-taped to the flash suppressor of his MAG-58. This guy was GOOD!

See,what you AND bin Laden (NOT equating the two of you in ANY moral respect!) fail to consider is the TRUE nature of the average American. They (and probably you too) see the "feminized,PC,scared to piss anybody off" office or factory worker,and assume we are mice. As smart as bin Laden is,this one miscaculation will end up killing him. He judged us all by Bubba and his cowardly running mates,when the truth is there is no group of people on the planet earth more violent or aggressive than Americans. In fact,most of our ancestors were either kicked-out of Europe or left one jump ahead of the hangman,and that's why we were born here to start with. Stop and think about THIS for a minute,ok? How weird and viiolent do you have to be to have the Irish and the Scots want to be rid of you? The majority of southern US citizens are of Scots/Irish descent,and many are like me and have Indian ancestors,too. My own Indian ancestors wiped out a whole English settlement in the 1700's,and the English actually paid them to move away. The Indian blood in many Americans didn't exactly do much to mellow them out.

Nope,old bin Laden also made the same mistake you made on this thread. He looked around and saw us all fighting amongst ourselves,and figured we were not united. BIG mistake! What he thought was self-destruction was practice. We don't have anybody else to fight,so we fight each other untill a better target comes along. bin Laden self-elected himself,and he is screwed. This is a mistake you only make once.

Probably the best way to illustrate this is to look at a Bull Mastiff. He is one HUGE-ASS dog,but it's not real easy to get him excited. Hell,it almost takes a explosion to even get his attention. Now compare him to that furry cockroach called a French Poodle. These little ratdogs are ALWAYS excited,running around and yapping at everything in sight. He can even yap at the Bull Mastiff,and rarely get the Mastiff to raise his head in recogonition. SOME poodles might take this as a sign of fear on the Mastiff's part,and get cocky enough to nip at the Mastiff's flanks and wake him up. BAD move. FINAL move.

I hate to be TOO obvious,but America and the US military are the Bull Mastiff's here,and bin Laden and all these other terrorists ARE the French Poodles. They managed to wake the sleeping Mastiff,and now they are lunch.