Wednesday, March 26, 2003

[Colin Glassey] Chirac and Blair: An Analysis Really good analysis here on the dispute between Chirac of France and Blair of the U.K. Its by By John O'Sullivan, UPI Editor in Chief. I've seen some good articles on the UPI web site, about one good one a week or so. For me though, the UPI site is not worth looking at to find the nuggets amoung the dross. 4:53:49 PM     [Colin Glassey] Daniel Patrick Moynihan is Dead One of the great men of American has died today. Moynihan was a man who gained respect from just about everyone he met. He served the U.S. Government, off and on, from 1960, till he retired from the Senate in 2000. Here is an obit from The Washington Post. Rest in Peace Mr. Moynihan. You served your country well. 4:50:14 PM     [Colin Glassey] Hats off to the British Reporter I have to say, three nights ago CNN showed about 3 solid hours of war footage live, from about 10 PM to 1 AM PST. The coverage was from a British war reporter with his camera-man, CNN just picked up the video feed. It was riviting to me. Here was a real operation as it happened, the Marines prone, M-16s at the ready. The M1-A1 tanks rolling along and then shooting up Iraqi positions. The whole thing captured the war, the tedium, the uncertainty, the sense that this was deadly serious. Tactically I have some critique of the Marine's performance (I would have ordered the infantry to advance to the tanks location and not let the tanks do all the scouting but I wasn't there and the Marine commander may have felt confident that the tanks wouldn't run into anti-tank mines or anti-tank missiles). BTW: This was part of the clearing operation of the port of Um Qsar. 1:41:15 PM     [Colin Glassey] War Reports Here is some of the best reporting on the war: Massive and Rapid Information from: The Command Post A brilliant war correspondent with the 1st Marines, Mathew Fisher of the National Post. Here is his account of the firefight on March 25. You can't get better war reporting that this. John Keegan has been writting nearly daily for the The Telegraph of England. This link might or might not work for you. Otherwise try this link and then search for "John Keegan". His latest essay (March 26) has the following quote: ... the truth has to be faced that the allies are trying to capture a country the size of France with one heavy division, one airborne division, and a US marine force of roughly two light-divisions. The British division is committed to subduing Basra. In 1944 France was captured, admittedly from a far more formidable enemy, only by landing 50 divisions on two fronts. Keegan is correct. We are doing something that strikes me as really gutsy. I personally think we need more troops in Iraq, and soon. However, I don't know where the 101st Airborn division is, and I don't know where the 82nd division is, and I don't know what our plans are. All I can say is, I wouldn't have attacked Iraq with just 3 divisions. If this works out, Tommy Franks will go down in history as a military genius and everyone will have to re-evaluate just how powerful the U.S. Army is. Ralph Peters agrees with me in his latest column for the New York Post. He says "Despite the warnings - even the pleading - of his generals, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to send as many heavy ground forces to the Gulf as our military planners requested. In many ways an admirable and inspiring leader, Rumsfeld let himself be persuaded by a gang of civilian theorists and by mercenary defense contractors that airpower could win this war and that ground forces would just go in to tidy things up." Gregg Easterbrook has writen daily essays for the last week, you can see a list at this link. The March 26 essay is very good, its about the M-1A1 Abrams and the Bradley. The writer of this blog Mental Blocks seems to have a good idea about military affairs. 1:04:38 PM

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