Keith said:
If Saddam
carries out his policy of placing his Republican Guards in the large cities
and fighting street-to-street, and house-to-house, then American soldiers
will either not have the courage to take part -- or they'll turn against
their officers as they did in Vietnam.
carries out his policy of placing his Republican Guards in the large cities
and fighting street-to-street, and house-to-house, then American soldiers
will either not have the courage to take part -- or they'll turn against
their officers as they did in Vietnam.
You are making a big mistake Keith based upon what
has been said about the past. There are two big, I would say huge
differences between the past as in "Fragging" or using granades on your own
abusive officers and the incident with the 3Rd Infantry in
DC. The Old Guard was a showcase unit made up of
enlisted men who were from the highest educational status in the
Army. It was considered cushey duty and was meant to do a lot of
parades for the Washington Area. There was a movie about them
years ago which painted it differently but this is the scuttlebutt and we
were on the same Post as they were. Ivy League folks wouldn't
shoot other students like the Ohio National Guard did.
Second, there is no longer any
Draft. Those folks were drafted into going somewhere they
didn't buy into. After that fiasco, the Republicans
asked and got an all volunteer professional Armed
Services. These folks are tough, mean, well-equipped and
clannish. I have no doubt they would fire on their own
if ordered and absolutely no doubt they would do what they were ordered to
do. The only hope is the upper ranks which might disagree but
that has always been the case as with the WW II Generals who were independant as
well. That is why some of them were fired after the
war. But I don't think any of this has to do with
refusing to fight. In fact I think the opposite is
likely. That they will be too aggressive and looking for a
fight.
REH
