Tuesday May 3, 2005
More troops needed - more or less
- Posted by Rob (#1) on May 3, 2005 09:04 CEST
The debate on the death of intelligence agent Calipari keeps the United States and Italy occupied:
Italy yesterday blamed "stress and inexperience" among U.S. troops for the shooting death of its top intelligence agent in Baghdad but accepted that he was killed accidentally.
So, are troops stretched too thin in Iraq? Was Rumsfeld wrong in his refusal to send more over? Yes, probably, but no.
It should be a safe assumption that the most experienced troops are already on duty and therefore sending in a larger number of reserves would not improve the quality of operations. The troops so desperately missing in Iraq were and are simply not available: they are stationed elsewhere. Their usefulness ranges from strategical value in South Korea protecting Seoul from possible Northern aggression to pointless legacy bases across Old Europe. Military redeployment including a withdrawl from some of those areas is a prerequisite for being able to send more of the best to operations such as Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Calipari accident, but also the Abu Ghraib abuses by half-brainers like Lynddie England, show that the real problem with the United States army is that it is wasting resources on the protection of countries liberated half a century ago, countries now claiming to aspire being a political "counterweight". Let's pull U.S. troops out of Europe as soon as possible.
And while we're at it, let's get the United Kingdom completely out of Europe as well before the EU threat to NATO becomes reality and threatens to do serious damage to this region of the Anglosphere.
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Are you gonna go my way?
- Posted by Rob (#1) on May 3, 2005 12:55 CEST
Being born in July has the advantage of spending quite a few birthdays abroad and I kind of like the idea of keeping that tradition. Some of the highlights include Hamburg at 10, Salou at 11, my sweet 16 bringing my first vivid memories of London (I believe it was not my first trip though) and some activities in South Carolina on my 20th, probably best described as sodomy. Last year I ended up in the complete middle of nowhere or least the part of it called Köping, Sweden.
And I just decided what city this year's birthday will lead me to... London. Okay, I'll admit: not much of a surprise there and kind of an anti-climax. Original plans included getting a second tattoo in Copenhagen.. but I don't think I'll regret going to see Lenny Kravitz at the Brixton Academy the night before my birthday. Let the catfight for my extra ticket begin!
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