Do you care?
I don't.
"But they disappeared under Bush's watch!"
Debateable and obviously a partisan attack. Even Kevin Drum says that it doesn't matter in the big scheme of things.
"But it's 38 truckloads of powerful explosives!"
And? Like terrorists don't have ways of getting/making explosives? What's 380 tons, compared with the 600,000+ tons Saddam had before we invaded? Or compared with whatever stockpiles the House of Saud and the leadership of Iran, Syria, and North Korea have?
"They represent a combat liability to our troops in Iraq."
See above.
What really bothers me about this story is the way the media has jumped on this, and really every other negative story about the Iraq war. I don't pay much attention to the Iraq news, mainly because I believe that the people on the ground are A) trained in the ways of warfare and B) better informed than I am and therefore C) better qualified to assess the combat situation and formulate strategy than I am. I have nothing meaningful to contribute to that discussion, and I believe that our boys are the best in the world.
Now, let's consider what the media is reporting on Iraq: There are battles being fought. Roadside bombs and car bombs go off on nearly a daily basis. Occasionally someone's kidnapped under the threat of beheading.
So there's a war going on. I don't need to read my paper every morning to tell me that people who hate us are shooting at us in Iraq.
I get tired of hearing the stories that imply that our troop commanders in Iraq are so incompetent that they can't keep an eye on every gram of explosives that may or may not have been in Iraq. I'm sick of the expectation that no American will die in the war.
Is there a reason that we can't stop second-guessing our troops? Delegate the fighting to them and remember that no plan survives contact with the enemy.
Posted by Blog Jones at October 28, 2004 11:56 PM
| Category: Politics