On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 04:50:55 GMT, "Mark Browne"
wrote:

snip
Known. Key operating word.

If we had "known", we would have gotten Saddam. We would have
"known" where he was. Thanks to budget cuts, and not being able
to hire "thieves", our humint assests were mighty thin on the
ground. We don't "know" everything they did.

Hell, we didn't "KNOW" that they buried 30 fully armed MIG
fighters in the sand. We found those by accident. And we admitted
they were found by accident. Would have been easy to claim we
knew where THEY were.
snip

Saddam effectively destroyed these arms. A turbine does not take well to
being buried in sand; without extensive refitting those birds will never fly
again.
I can't begin to imagine why he chose to comply with the orders to disarm,
but not to let the inspectors verify the fact. One working theory: it may
have been in Saddams best interest to make his neighbors think he still
possessed them so that he could maintain some control of his political
rivals.

Mark Browne


Were they cucooned or were they simply bulldozed over?

Gunner

" ......The world has gone crazy. Guess I'm showing my
age...
I think it dates from when we started looking at virtues
as funny. It's embarrassing to speak of honor, integrity,
bravery, patriotism, 'doing the right thing', charity,
fairness. You have Seinfeld making cowardice an acceptable
choice; our politicians changing positions of honor with
every poll; we laugh at servicemen and patriotic fervor; we
accept corruption in our police and bias in our judges; we
kill our children, and wonder why they have no respect for
Life. We deny children their childhood and innocence- and
then we denigrate being a Man, as opposed to a 'person'. We
*assume* that anyone with a weapon will use it against his
fellowman- if only he has the chance. Nah; in our agitation
to keep the State out of the church business, we've
destroyed our value system and replaced it with *nothing*.
Turns my stomach- "

Chas , rec.knives