-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Soldiers For The Truth Defending America Newsletter Copyright © 2001 Soldiers For The Truth Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Situation Report - 28 February 2001 "The Gulf, Then and Now" TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS SITREP from the President Through Zman’s Gun Sight - After Ten Years, the Conflict with Iraq needs a New Approach HACK’s Target for the Week - Time We Recognized Our Real Heroes The Big Picture: Article 1 – Ten Years on, Many in Gulf see need to Scale Back Troops Article 2 -- Tough Choices Article 3 -- Russia Against NATO Expansion Voice of the Grunt: Article 4 – West Point and Women in the Military Article 5 – Air Force: Tired of Politics and Undeserved Awards Article 6 – The Sergeant’s Corner: Why no Armor Combat Badge? Article 7 -- ARNG: The Guard must Modernize Article 8 – ARNG: Some Units are Different Article 9 – Navy: Commanders not held Responsible Article 10 – Rules of Engagement need Overhaul Article 11 – Dale Earnhardt vs. Seven Soldiers Article 12 – Sick Gulf Vets Contaminated Partners, Report Suggests G.I Humor: Article 13 -- GI HUMOR – Simulate Navy Life in Your own Home Medal of Honor: Article 14 -- WILLIAMS, JAMES E., Vietnam 1966 SITREP: SITUATION REPORT: 28 February 2001 A. Main topics: 1) West Point and Women 2) Retention 3) The Guard 4) Awards 5) Quality of Life. B. HOT BUTTONS: * Better Commo! The SFTT web has been transferred to a powerful dedicated server donated and maintained by Viking InterNet Services USA. We think most of the technical difficulties you've experienced with the website are now over. With the help of dedicated Special Forces communications wizard Marv Stenhammar, we now have a very efficient web server. Though, the revisions were not cosmetic, the new SFTT web looks splendid and works great. The DA Newsletter archives and VOTG files have been indexed and will be converted to the new web format this week. "Top Stenhammar" has also installed and configured a new Credit Card Processing Form for receiving and processing contributions, directly into our new merchant account. The process is completely secure using 128 bit encrypted SSL on the VeriSign Pay Flow Server. The new web link for your tax deductible contributions and online donations to SFTT is: Web URL: http://www.SFTT.org/donations.html Note: This is the first week we have sent SFTT-News on the new server. There may be a few bugs to work out, this is a very large mailing list. If you stop receiving the newsletter, just e-mail "List Master", for any problems or address changes. * Notes from the front: (1) Desert Storm or other combat accounts – keep sending them. (2) GI Humor – need some good ones for upcoming issues. * Question of the week: Do you believe another Desert Storm is unavoidable? !!! Feel free to send me hot topics directly if you can’t get through the admin/log net -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Keep the mail coming!!! We won’t reveal your true identity unless you give us your approval. We know how vindictive the "system" is. * WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT 2000. EVERY DOLLAR MAKES A DIFFERENCE. THANK YOU to all SFTT warriors who are sending bucks for fuel ammo and beans. * How you can help: !!! Credit Card donation via our WEBSITE at www.sftt.org. !!! If you think we HIT a target, forward the newsletter to TV, radio and your local papers. YOU are the frontline recruiters and intel gatherers for SFTT. Check or Money order: Send to and make payable to: Soldiers For The Truth Foundation, PO Box 63840, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-3840. Important: Your donation is tax deductible! SFTT is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit educational foundation, IRS EIN 31-1592564. If you send us an E-MAIL address with your donation we can immediately mail you a RECEIPT. Multiple contributions: Please remind us when you submit your donation. We will send you a cumulative statement. Prepare for Action -- "Crew Ready! -- LOAD SABOT - DRIVER MOVE OUT!" R.W. Zimmermann President SFTT E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Through Zman’s Gun Sight Through Zman’s Gun Sight After Ten Years, the Conflict with Iraq needs a New Approach By R.W. (Zimm) Zimmermann President, Soldiers For The Truth Dateline SFTT - 28 February 2001 The recent hyped up air war against Iraq was a reminder how difficult it is to decipher what’s really happening behind the scenes in Washington. Although we’ve been bombing Iraq almost every week, in an undeclared ten-year war, the latest raid commanded the attention of a small-scale Desert Storm. Listening to the flash reporting and concocted conclusions, I almost felt that it was time to pack my old duffle bag again. But there is more than meets the eye. The panic about Iraq’s capabilities and secret weapons are an admission by Washington and the Pentagon, that the Gulf War was a hollow, unfinished affair. Elevating Saddam to leader of a nuclear, biological and chemical superpower, contradicts the special reports commemorating the 10th anniversary of total victory in the Gulf. The MSNBC report in which Stormin’ Norman pompously narrates his Blitzkrieg and celebrates his napoleon-esque leadership, should raise the question why Saddam could be so capable today and why are we are afraid of him? Could it be that our leaders presented us a smoke and mirror show? Saddam is a bad boy I don’t care for, especially since he has little respect for his own people, but he isn’t an Adolph Hitler. And Iraq isn’t Nazi Germany -- not in population strength, industrial output, military strength, or operational ingenuity. What’s irrational is that Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities concern us much more than those of Syria, India, Pakistan, Iran, and quite a few other "baddies." Maybe Iraq’s problem is that it’s small enough to serve as a "good" enemy to demonstrate US resolve and low risk victories. No doubt, Saddam is a bully we should have finished off in 1991. Unfortunately, it’s much more complex to deal with the situation today, especially since we are lacking the detailed intelligence, unified allied support and the massive combined arms capabilities that secured the initial and incomplete victory. Remember, we never made him personally sign a surrender document! If we continue on our current strategic course, the Baghdad bully could easily become another Fidel Castro, outliving generations of US leaders. Worst of all, he’ll be a martyr for those Arabs who oppose our historical preference for an alliance with Israel. What’s bothersome is that we continue waging war against the elderly, the kids and the sick. The embargo isn’t working, especially when allies and major powers ignore it. The bombing seems to yield only marginal results. The biggest problem with the bombing is that besides giving away our air combat countermeasures, we’re fueling the hatred in Iraq by hurting innocent civilians. That’s counterproductive, if you can’t follow up the air war with a ground campaign to bring the affair to a conclusion. Bombing civilians oftentimes produces undesirable effects on enemy soldier morale. My father once told me that when on a short convalescent leave to his hometown in ’44, he witnessed the recovery efforts following an allied day raid. When he saw two dead little girls laid out next to their family, he decided to return to the front to help even the score. He reluctantly admitted that for some time, every 75mm tank round that left his Panther’s gun tube, met an enemy target. The bombers and their crews were elusive destroyers, for little air defense existed, but the ground troops were fair game, on even terms. Our current cat and mouse game in the Middle-east isn’t producing results, but I sincerely hope that the old "Desert Stormers" won’t send in the ground troops at a time when we aren’t holding the moral high ground and are lacking the capabilities and allied support from ten years ago. Iraq will only cease to be a menace, if we can isolate or eliminate Saddam and his henchmen. That means finding other, unconventional ways to erode and destroy his leadership apparatus. It can only be done from the inside, with good human intelligence and precise targeting. Prior to striking, we must actively build and nourish a resistance network that believes in the cause and doesn’t fear small failures. Once we determine that the time is right, we can’t let the freedom fighters hang. America must send a message that our enemy is the Iraq’s leadership and not the people of a once influential culture. We should also avoid undermining the fragile Mid-east peace process that is essential for stability and prosperity of the region and the civilized world. Meanwhile, America, the world’s most technologically capable nation should lead the way in developing alternate energies to eliminate dependency on sources dominated by corrupt regimes. I find it sad that we would send young Americans to fight and die, so we can feed the biggest gas guzzling SUVs on the block. © R.W. Zimmermann, LandserUSA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Note: This article is copyrighted by the author and requires his approval for other than newsletter further dissemination. HACK’s Target for the Week: Time We Recognized Our Real Heroes By David Hackworth Soldiering is dangerous business in peace as well as in war. If you don't think so, ask the aircrews who attacked Iraq's air-defense system last week. A pilot who flew that mission said, "Waves of Iraqi rockets and AAA would come up and explode ... then another wave would shoot all at once and light up the sky." Ask the families of soldiers Robert L. Olson, George P. Perry, Gregory I. Montgomery, Thomas E. Barber, Bob D. MacDonald and Rafael Olvera-Rodriguez, who all recently died on a training exercise in Hawaii. The U.S. Army aircraft in which they were killed was almost 20 years old, and the pilots' flying proficiency -- reduced because of foul weather and night conditions in conjunction with flying-hour cutbacks over the past eight years - was far from the best. Ask the families of the 17 sailors killed and the surviving crew members of the USS Cole if the Port of Aden in Yemen holds any fond memories. Our combat sailors were sent off in a warship to show the flag, following Rules of Engagement that didn't begin to protect them from being served up to terrorists like mincemeat on a twisted deck. Or ask the loved ones of the 26 Marines who've died in V-22 Osprey helicopter crashes if they think their irreplaceable loved ones should have been aboard test aircraft that, over the past decade, have consistently done two things well: crash and burn. The political porkers and brass push the aircraft because it's good for them -- but it sure hasn't done well by our Marines. But where's the moral outrage from the citizenry? The public's plain switched off. "They're not our kids," say the movers and shakers with enough pull to make the politicians sweat. Why worry when their boys and girls made it into good schools and aren't in Kuwait or Bosnia. Or on dangerous ground with the 69th Air Defense Brigade defending Israel. Or with the Army divisions preparing to reinforce them when things get hotter and then punch through to Baghdad at incalculable risk to put an end to you-know-who. The voices of the active-duty survivors are muted -- it's that or career suicide. Remember, if you're a regular, it's your job, and with 65 percent of the force married, it's the family's job, too. And complaints from the bereaved get little response and less results from the porkers in Congress, who clearly have their own interests and dollar-driven agendas. The national media are not into soldiers' stories, either. There's higher-rated stuff to push: the Clinton serial pardons and pillages; civilians jammed into a sub's control tower distracting the crew and sinking a Japanese ship; or lights-out on Sunset Strip. Or take the death of 49-year-old Dale Earnhardt. A hero to millions of fans, he regularly laid his life on the line. Maybe he deserved his millions, his private jet and other comforts -- auto racing is a dangerous game. But, hey, it's no more risky than that of our underpaid defenders -- and at least it brought him movie-star fame and fortune. Most of those who die defending you and me are kids in their 20s who live in ghetto barracks or on-post quarters officially classified by the Pentagon as submarginal. They operate worn-out gear that's not good-to-go because misallocated defense dollars went to renovate a four-star general's quarters at Fort Monroe, Va., and the top admiral's pad in Hawaii -- at more than a million bucks a pop. Or it went to purchase millions of Ranger berets made in Red China and Arkansas to supposedly save the Army from self-destructing. Or to buy obsolete, gold-plated aircraft designed both to shoot down the long-deceased Soviet Union and pad some pockets. Earnhardt dies, and from the president down, the nation mourns. Our professional airmen, Marines, sailors and soldiers die protecting our freedom, and most Americans look the other way. If we returned to the draft, and the children of the rich and powerful were taking risks and dying next to the disenfranchised, surely this callous disregard for today's defenders would be diminished. Then, too, our citizen-soldiers would be committed more carefully to trouble spots that have nothing to do with our national security -- and their absentee ballots just might be properly counted the next time around. David Hackworth's home page is at - http://www.hackworth.com Send mail to P.O. Box 5210, Greenwich, CT 06831. © 2001 David H. Hackworth. Distributed by King Features Syndicate Inc. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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