Any Bets On When They Launch?

[Bob Potter]

I've been following this thread with some interest, and I salute the moderation of our moderator. There are good points here, good and valid. The one thing that caught my ear was Alexander's mention of US chemical weapon stockpiles at Edgewood Army Arsenal (he missed Anniston I think, unless they have moved). I won't quibble with his numbers but I felt I had to comment about doctrine.

It is one thing to possess chemical weapons and another to use them. I was an Ordnance Corps officer, and the Chemical Corps was under its umbrella when I "was in." The use of chemical weapons by US troops on the battlefield requires the authorization of the President of the United States. Forget what you feel about THIS president and think about bureaucracy. Do you know how much military forces LOVE bureaucracy? It takes so long to get authorization through the chain of command that troop commanders think hard about it. They think hard about it anyway, and add to that the fluidity of the battlefield and the necessity changes quickly. In comparison, under Soviet military doctrine, company commanders had authorization to call the stuff in. Who inspired the Iraqis?

Our doctrine may have changed but I doubt it. If for no other reason than we have to get this stuff away from Saddam before he gives any more of it to his buddies like ben Laden, we have to do this. The rest of the world has been brassed off at us off and on for always anyway; do you really think that a sovereign nation will openly ally with Saddam? (An aside: in news footage today, I did see some blokes in Baghdad wearing Russian-style "lizard" fatigue caps. Anyone know anything about that?)

I am not one-hundred-percent convinced that we are doing the right thing and God truly only knows what will become of it. I work hard not to scare the bejesus out of my students but I work hard to be honest with them too. The world was not the same after August 1914, and it was not the same after August 1945. Was not 11 September 2001 a similar milestone?

Only those who have never seen war advocate it. Only politicians and lawyers send young men (and now women -- three of my former students are now serving servicepersons) off to war. I keep remembering the last stanza of the old Woody Guthrie song, "the Ballad of the Reuben James": "the worst of men must fight and the best of men must die."

Message (rant?) ends. Thanks for patience.

Bob