Poodles and Choppers
There were a couple of interesting items in the news over the last few days. The first one is that the poodle has decided to start withdrawing British troops from Iraq. It’s hardly surprising considering that even though he managed to win an unprecedented third term as Prime Minister his margin was the slimmest so far. Can the Tories win the next election? I don’t know. It seems that if the discontent of the British population with Iraq was such they would have voted conservatives in greater numbers in the last election cycle. I also think that however discontent the public might be with Blair the population isn’t ready yet for another Tory government. Could it happen? Sure. I think that the liberal democrats might be the greatest beneficiaries of the current situation. We will see in a few months. The bottom line is that no matter how cheery Tony Snow is; this is a hard one to spin for the government.
The second item is the increased number of aircrafts shot down. I don’t have clear-cut reasons on that one. I would rate the probability of shoulder fired missile trickling down from Afghanistan as pretty high. I am sure the Iranians would look the other way if not outright help the transfer. Why from Afghanistan, you may ask? Well, I am a frugal kind of guy. If you give me something and I don’t need it I will store it. We gave the mujahideens thousands of Stinger missiles in the 80s so that they could rid themselves of the Russians. I would be very surprised indeed if a) they used all of them and b) returned them for a refund after the Russians left. I don’t know the reason for every chopper to go down but I wouldn’t be surprised if those Stingers played a part in it. The next thing is that bringing a chopper down is possible with small arms fire. Missiles or not, enough people taking pot shots, or expanding a burst of automatic fire, at helicopters some of those shots are bound to hit their targets. At this point a reading of Dune might be required to understand the gravity of the situation: the Harkonnens are beaten by the Freemen once they loose the ability to move at will… Are we in dire straits? Probably. Will more troops help? Possibly. I am simply afraid that it might be too little too late.
The second item is the increased number of aircrafts shot down. I don’t have clear-cut reasons on that one. I would rate the probability of shoulder fired missile trickling down from Afghanistan as pretty high. I am sure the Iranians would look the other way if not outright help the transfer. Why from Afghanistan, you may ask? Well, I am a frugal kind of guy. If you give me something and I don’t need it I will store it. We gave the mujahideens thousands of Stinger missiles in the 80s so that they could rid themselves of the Russians. I would be very surprised indeed if a) they used all of them and b) returned them for a refund after the Russians left. I don’t know the reason for every chopper to go down but I wouldn’t be surprised if those Stingers played a part in it. The next thing is that bringing a chopper down is possible with small arms fire. Missiles or not, enough people taking pot shots, or expanding a burst of automatic fire, at helicopters some of those shots are bound to hit their targets. At this point a reading of Dune might be required to understand the gravity of the situation: the Harkonnens are beaten by the Freemen once they loose the ability to move at will… Are we in dire straits? Probably. Will more troops help? Possibly. I am simply afraid that it might be too little too late.
Labels: Afghanistan, Blair, British, Irak, Military, Pull Out, Surge
posted by Sgt. B. at 2:44 PM
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