Anyone else up watching things unfold?

During the Vietnam war (so I read) the US military had the bright idea
of taking cats with the GIs on jungle night patrols.

The idea was that the cats would get agitated or give signs that a Viet
Cong squaddie was nearby.

Anyway, the experiemnt was a total flop because the cats kept belting
into the jungle in pursuit of small furry squeaky tasty animals.

And "When the weather was inclement, the cats were nowhere to be
found...."

 

True.

Doesn't excuse the mass rapes of eastern Germany (and Berlin), though.

 

I tell you what - my quality of usenet experience has drastically
increased since I killfilled Des.

 

"Ohhh! Squeaky! Crunchy!"

"You want me to do what? What do you think I am? A dog?"



Phil

 

Ben Blaney muttered

I enjoy verbal fencing with people from time to time, but there's
ultimately no fun in it with someone who just automatically gainsays
whatever you say...so

I don't "do" killfiles, but I do cherry pick what I read to a great
degree - simply not enough time to do otherwise. I guess he's not a
cherry any more ;-)

 

I *did* make that point but you snipped it! The Russian convoys are
famous. (And PQ17 is infamous.) IIRC they didn't have to pay for it as
the UK did. I think the yanks called that one right although it didn't
turn Russia into a lifelong friend the way they hoped.

Good point! We can certainly say Russia wouldn't have. I wonder about
the states.

Ahhh. You didn't snip it.

Depends how pedantic you want to be!

 

An attack on Saudi would be more likely to piss the Islamic world off
enuogh to fight. Iraq isn't your typical islamic state. Until the US
took out Saddam it was pretty secular.

THerefore I assumed OBL hoped the fact that the Hijackers were Saudi
would provoke Bush to attack Saudi.

Although OBL will be pleased he got the US to retaliate he hasnt'
caused the war he'd hoped for.

(All above is IMHO.)

 

TFFT.

 

Read:
Berlin, the downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor.
And you can understand why.

 

Not read that yet. "Stalingrad" was superb.

Robin Cook was interviewed on 'Today' this morning. Part of the reason that
Fallujah is a problem is that some months ago there was a demonstration by
concerned parents, protesting that their children were not being educated
because the US Army had commandeered schools as temporary barracks. The
Septics greeted this peaceful delegation in their traditional manner, by
killing 20 of them.

How to alienate an entire population, eh!

 

I'm sure that's exactly how it happened. After all, the septics are
well known for opening fire on groups of civilians for absolutely no
reason whatsoever, aren't they.

 

I have. Superb book. I can understand why the Russkis did it - revenge,
and understandable revenge - but it's still inexcusable.
There again, so is just about everything in war.

 

*Chuckle*

I've only just seen this.

Just think of all the other things which therefore did not exist before
they were named:
Black holes. Red shift. Dinosaurs. R1s.

Oh, hang about........

 

Or maybe the "peaceful delegation" were approaching a checkpoint, &
refused to stop when ordered. So the septics, being fully aware of how
many of their colleagues had been killed by suicide bombers in similar
circumstances, decided not to take the risk. Who's to know one of the
ragheads didn't have a few pounds of explosive wrapped around their
waist?

This is of course all conjecture, but the American army don't just
deliberately kill civilians at close range without any reason.

 

But you said " I'm _not_ Cab!".

 

That's a little harsh Pip.
After all, they got Des.

 

I can only agree with you.
Plus I think reading this and Stalingrad should be compulsory for all
politicians in our government.

 

Fuggin 'ell Des!

 

Is there a single documented case where they knew they were civilians,
& knew they weren't a threat, but opened fire regardless? I'd be
surprised if there is.

 

Of course not. If it happened, no-one would be dumb enough to write a
report about it, would they?