2dogs
March 19, 2003, 07:11 AM
http://www.etherzone.com/2003/henr031903.shtml
RIDICULOUS
FOR OUR TRAINED TROOPS
By: Ed Henry
When I first read the report of St. Petersburg Times staff writer Wes Allison who is attached to the 101st Airborne Division in Northern Kuwait, my reaction went from surprise, to sadness, to disbelief and finally to repulsion. Then I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Is this the military of a superpower or the brave troops we are asked to support?
Mr. Allison wrote; "Even though all U.S. soldiers deployed to the six main Army camps in northern Kuwait must carry their rifles at all times—even to the latrine in the middle of the night—few are carrying any bullets. This is not an oversight, or a lame-brained cost-saving measure ordered by the Pentagon, or an indication that American military leaders believe they can take Iraq without firing a shot. Rather, it's an effort to stave off the sad(ly) inevitable: Once the Army starts issuing ammo en masse, soldiers will accidentally shoot themselves and each other."
He went on to describe several recent examples of shooting accidents, including one where a soldier was shot in the neck by an officer cleaning his pistol in another tent. Let's see, that would be a 45 caliber automatic the officer was cleaning, the gun issued in World War I to knock charging enemies backwards because a Springfield rifle bullet would go through them so fast they would still fall forward into the trenches often leaving our boys stabbed by the bayonet of a dead man. Must make quite a neck wound, wouldn't you think?
What's going on here? Didn't these soldiers go through basic training, some of them with years in the National Guard? Has co-ed training eliminated the old dictum "this is your piece?" Are they no longer expected to field strip their guns blindfolded? Did too many instructors get shot? Or is this simply the result of our school system extended into the military? The NRA is bound to have a field day with news like this.
With all the time our troops have on their hands waiting for "the word" to attack Iraq, you would think that the Army would be able to familiarize its men with their weapons to the point they could be trusted with ammunition. That isn't too much to ask of our military leadership is it?
Imagine an early American city in the days of Wyatt Erp when everyone, at least all the males, carried six-shooters. Do you think people were injuring or killing each other accidentally? Did it require exceptional education to learn where the trigger is and not to point a gun at someone unless you intended to kill him?
No wonder the people of more than 140 countries around the world are sick and tired of having our troops around, doing the things young rascals do and causing accidents. How many helicopters have gone down from improper repair or handling? Remember the ski-lift we knocked down in Italy, or the civilian airliner the USS Vincennes shot down over the Persian Gulf, the fishing boat sunk by a nuclear sub showing off to visitors close to Hawaii. How about "tail-hook" and the girls raped on Okinawa. Do we just write this off as "boys will be boys?"
Soldiers are not ambassadors or a true reflection of a mature country. Their presence has created enough hostility to breed hundreds of terrorists.
Now, with the Commander in Chief of our armed forces leading us into a senseless war in Iraq we are about to become the pariahs of the world spreading this sort of carelessness even further.
RIDICULOUS
FOR OUR TRAINED TROOPS
By: Ed Henry
When I first read the report of St. Petersburg Times staff writer Wes Allison who is attached to the 101st Airborne Division in Northern Kuwait, my reaction went from surprise, to sadness, to disbelief and finally to repulsion. Then I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Is this the military of a superpower or the brave troops we are asked to support?
Mr. Allison wrote; "Even though all U.S. soldiers deployed to the six main Army camps in northern Kuwait must carry their rifles at all times—even to the latrine in the middle of the night—few are carrying any bullets. This is not an oversight, or a lame-brained cost-saving measure ordered by the Pentagon, or an indication that American military leaders believe they can take Iraq without firing a shot. Rather, it's an effort to stave off the sad(ly) inevitable: Once the Army starts issuing ammo en masse, soldiers will accidentally shoot themselves and each other."
He went on to describe several recent examples of shooting accidents, including one where a soldier was shot in the neck by an officer cleaning his pistol in another tent. Let's see, that would be a 45 caliber automatic the officer was cleaning, the gun issued in World War I to knock charging enemies backwards because a Springfield rifle bullet would go through them so fast they would still fall forward into the trenches often leaving our boys stabbed by the bayonet of a dead man. Must make quite a neck wound, wouldn't you think?
What's going on here? Didn't these soldiers go through basic training, some of them with years in the National Guard? Has co-ed training eliminated the old dictum "this is your piece?" Are they no longer expected to field strip their guns blindfolded? Did too many instructors get shot? Or is this simply the result of our school system extended into the military? The NRA is bound to have a field day with news like this.
With all the time our troops have on their hands waiting for "the word" to attack Iraq, you would think that the Army would be able to familiarize its men with their weapons to the point they could be trusted with ammunition. That isn't too much to ask of our military leadership is it?
Imagine an early American city in the days of Wyatt Erp when everyone, at least all the males, carried six-shooters. Do you think people were injuring or killing each other accidentally? Did it require exceptional education to learn where the trigger is and not to point a gun at someone unless you intended to kill him?
No wonder the people of more than 140 countries around the world are sick and tired of having our troops around, doing the things young rascals do and causing accidents. How many helicopters have gone down from improper repair or handling? Remember the ski-lift we knocked down in Italy, or the civilian airliner the USS Vincennes shot down over the Persian Gulf, the fishing boat sunk by a nuclear sub showing off to visitors close to Hawaii. How about "tail-hook" and the girls raped on Okinawa. Do we just write this off as "boys will be boys?"
Soldiers are not ambassadors or a true reflection of a mature country. Their presence has created enough hostility to breed hundreds of terrorists.
Now, with the Commander in Chief of our armed forces leading us into a senseless war in Iraq we are about to become the pariahs of the world spreading this sort of carelessness even further.