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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (9223)	11/7/2001 2:23:44 AM
From: jjkirk	Respond to of 281500

Hi Bilow, I don't interpret your post to be OT...but, then I am not Faultline... II. Topic Guidelines 1. Discussions relating to any article in Foreign Affairs, 2001 Issues 2. Discussions relating to current events, especially items concerning: - US relations with Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, EU, Middle Eastern Countries - The War on Terrorism - Military policy, capabilities, and tactics - Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).............. jj

To: Bilow who wrote (9223)	11/8/2001 2:24:32 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

OT: Jezails, Daggers, and Scimitars Hi Carl, I was intrigued by your logic: Even if the two sides had equal logistics, a US army of 100 would beat the daylights out of a conscript army of 100 because our front line soldiers are specifically selected and trained for that particular duty. Now, as I recall, our failure in Viet Nam was because the Viet Minh were ready to field and lose 1,000 men for every 100 Americans, and were willing to do this for not years, but decades. In the current episode in Afghanistan, would we say that a proud nationalist force, with intense tribal loyalties and dramatically superior local knowledge, willing to suffer at a ratio of 10:1 or perhaps 100:1 due to religious fervor wouldn't be a completely formidable adversary? I understand your arrogance. But I've seen it before, and I'm quite skeptical that that your chest-thumping amounts to much. In that regard, I did read recently that certain U.S. forward deployment units were getting training in close quarters combat, eg. bayonet technique, from Russian officers in Uzbekistan, because there is no such training offered to our elite troops or infantry in standard practice today. Could it be that our superiorly trained night-sighted sniper specialists are about to have the tables turned in a most amazing technological twist of fate? You know the standard line, right? It's silly to carry a knife in a gunfight? What if the al-Qaeda has conceived a game plan where it is silly to carry a gun in a knife fight? In a cave, anything is possible, except advantage to a foreigner. Best, Ray