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Politics : SUPPORT OUR TROOPS -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (2002)	4/17/2003 2:11:09 PM
From: rrufff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3592

The truly amazing thing is how some people will focus on this tragedy instead of how incredible our victory was. Under any standard, this has been the "kindest and gentlest" war in history, as well as the most effective, probably even greater than the 1967 6 day victory. Even counting the number of Iraqi dead results in an historical low number. NOte - I'm not saying it is good to have any dead, but if one has a war, there will be dead and wounded. Maybe the Museum of Syria will be better prepared.

To: Thomas M. who wrote (2002)	4/17/2003 3:03:17 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3592

The only theory I know that makes sense of the events is that the troops were ordered not to prevent looting of the government ministries. The reason for this order was to be sure that the locals who had not fled would not be able to setup an interim government quicker than the U.S. wanted. The bombing had not destroyed all that much of the infrastructure, and so looting was used to dismantle any chance of a functioning bureacracy. Where infrasture still exists local leaders appeared quickly. See for example: news.ft.com During the first day of looting it was reported to be all young men. It's easy to speculate that agent provacatures were in the initial wave, to more or less show the general population that the troops would not respond. Once the chairs and desks and papers were gone there would be no functioning civil authority until the U.S. had it's chance to put the puppets in place. The museums and libraries were then more of an accident in the general order to not defend any government buildings outside the oil ministry. TP