Armchair quarterbacks

I was weak earlier this week. You may know that I read a French blog called Big Pictures. A French journalist based on the East Coast writes it. It gives a French look at U.S. news. It’s quite interesting, if you read French.
The topic of the British sailors and Marines captured by Iran came up and a person nicknamed Diogenes stated that Britain should react properly to what is an act of war unlike Carter had. (Furthermore I am not convinced that either the British government or the Iranian are to be trusted about the position of the sailors when captured. It would take an uninvolved party to provide GPS coordinates for me to believe either of the belligerents. Gulf of Tonkin anyone?)
I flew of the handle and asked in the heat of the moment if he would be willing to partake in an action against Iran, or whether he was a couple of testicles short of following through on his beliefs. I admit that I was a little harsh. He replied with personal attacks, as expected, and avoided giving an answer. That behavior made my point: he is an armchair quarterback.
If I had a bachelor in psychology, as my little sister do, I could probably come up with some scientific names for the condition and I would be able to explain it. Unfortunately I am not and I simply view him as one of those rabid sports fans, overweight, under exercised, yet all-knowing of what each player should be doing at any given time and ready to verbally trash them if they do not catch the pass or sink the hoop. I am a sport fan myself. That is I like to practice sport, to get out there and do it. He lives vicariously through people like me. This thought made me immediately despise him. A feat only accomplished by a handful of people. I simply cannot stand people who see war as a spectator sport.
Now that my mind has been cleared by Aikido practice I realize that I shouldn’t despise him but sorry him. I will never be a sport star but I will have fun practicing. He will always be a wannabe.

Press review? - not really

There is an interesting story in today’s Christian Science Monitor . It’s about Marines training to go to Iraq as a Civil Affair unit. CAs interact with the citizens to find what their concerns are and pass them on up the chain. (I know that it’s more complex than that but time is of the essence on Monday mornings.) As I read it I alternatively thought that it was a fair look at training, message controlled well, and cliché. Those of you who read military blogs (Those that use neologisms such as “milblogs” on this blog will be swiftly condemned to be hanged, quartered, burned, and drowned. Trial by fire might be offered as an alternative for those deeply convinced of the righteousness of their cause.) will know that war supporters have been advocating for better message control on the part of the armed forces. The term of art is psyops. The idea is to present our actions in Iraq in a more positive light. It also requires troops to be kept “on message” during their contact with the press.

The article is a fair look at training because it describes the operation taking place in a small North Carolina community in what I thought was a clear, detached manner. It’s a single byline but the reporter seems to have been around all the members of the unit. He gives the reader the whole picture.
Message control on the part of the Corps is great. The writer concludes with this quote by a Cpl. "I would have been disappointed if I had spent four years in the Marines without going. I want to do something with all this training I have." Marines know what they want. Contrast that with this story in today’s Washington Post where an army SSgt says, "I don't know who I'm fighting most of the time, I don't know who is setting what IED." While the statement is true, how are you supposed to know who’s planting IEDs or shooting at you, it does give the impression that this SNCO is completely lost. Not exactly something to be chalked under good PR. Some people will undoubtedly blame it on The Post. They are wrong. The blame for this kind of statement is on individuals who don’t think through what they say, but mostly on the institution for not providing them with guidance. Is it the groundpounder’s job to deal with the press? No. But it’s his boss’ job to give him guidance on how to deal with the press correctly.
Finally, let’s talk about the clichés in the CSM. "It's easy to go kick down a door, and marines love that, so this is actually much harder for them." We are not all brainless apes who thrive solely on blowing stuff up. Do we really need to perpetuate this image? All it does is that when Marines like me go to job interview we end up being asked, in a very PC kind of way: Can you think for yourself? And last but not least let us not forget the obligatory paragraph dedicated to women ogling the Marines while lunching.

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.