Maybe this will get Peter Arnett what he really wants: an exclusive interview with Saddam. Maybe he'll find Saddam the same time our Patriot missiles do. Maybe he has a smart-bomb magnet in his pocket, or a bullseye painted on his bald head.
Let's not jump to negative conclusions about all this.
Maybe I'm just not crunching the numbers right, but to me, 390,000 troops does not seem to be a "light force" -- especially when you factor in the disproportionate amount of enemy butt that is being kicked.
Now... fifty civilian-clothed fedayeen on a bus that can be taken out with one shot? That's a "light" force.
Have we not DEPLOYED a "streamlined, hard-hitting force?" So what's Hack hacking about? Good point, akron.
My favorite bit in this thread is still this one from LS...
He reminds me of the French generals in WW I who cling to the bayonet charge in the face of machine gun fire while Churchill is screaming, "the TANK, you idiots, the TANK!"
So I'm flipping through the news channels and see this guy, supposedly an old war hero, saying Bush authorized eight divisions and Rumsfeld only sent half that? Is that true? What's up with Hack, anyway?
Franks was assigned to the 1st Cav in 1987 as Division Artillery commander. He was also Chief of Staff of the 1st Cav during that time. He served as Assistant Division Commander (Maneuver) in Desert Storm, as SAMWolf said.
I've met people who served in the 1st Cav. It's a proud tradition, and it wouldn't surprise me if they slept with that patch on.
What a great article! I had no idea the French had established such a fine tradition of losing. I've seen a couple of links to this, but came across the original yesterday by accident (the link was blocked by the church's Internet Content Filter, and as system admin I naturally had to check it out).
I've seen links to Google searches because this thing is posted all over the place. Come on, folks, you can do better than that. Sure the original article is not easy to find -- they rarely are. But these things have authors and they probably put their names on them, so let's give credit where credit is due. End of sermon.
Here it is -- attributable source and all. Save the JPEG, and it's fairly suitable for printing. And, the Weekly Standard went so far as to include a link to the original author, Sid Stafford -- who goes by the blog name "Silflay Hraka." (Who says writing a Web Log won't make you famous?)
The main link above is in the non-subscription, free section of the Weekly Standard's web site (and includes a hilarious cartoon).