Alright. So for months now, we've been hearing all about the prowess of the US Army, and how America's military pre-eminence relative to the rest of the world is superlative to a degree not seen since ancient Rome. We've had test runs of the "mother of all bombs" shown in loop on our tvs. We've been told that the war on Iraq would begin with literally _thousands_ of precision-guided munitions being dropped all over the Iraqi countryside, as the sky was darkened by flights of American bombers. The President tells us "this will not be a campaign of half-measures." So what do we see on the news last night attacking Baghdad? A couple of Stealth fighers and about 3 dozen cruise missles. Geez, Clinton launched an attack like that against Hussein, and it didn't even move his impeachment proceedings off the frontpage. Where is my 'shock and awe'? Where is the Nintendo-like gun camera footage? Where is the 'hyperwar' described by Tom Clancy in _Bear and the Dragon_ that I can watch unfold live on a CIA webpage?

I must say I'm highly disappointed so far. At this rate, Bush's war won't have a chance to beat the NCAAs _OR_ the Oscars in this week's Nielsens. ;)

Just a couple of random thoughts from the opening hours of Desert Storm II:

*Ok, so I've rationalized lots of logistical arguments and Psy-Ops campaign strategies as reasons why we started this war off with a pop-gun whimper, rather than a JDAM bang. But let's think about this for a minute: given that we're concerned about oil wells being set ablaze, or chemical/biological weapons being used in combat or dispersed to rogue elements, doesn't it logically follow that the chances of these happening are greater the longer combat continues without keypoints being taken by the US? Wouldn't it be wiser to throw in the kitchen sink with all the 'shock and awe' bombing campaign, start to helo in troops to seize oil fields, and get the armor-division equivalents rolling right away, rather than letting Iraq sit around for almost a day after the comencement of hostilities to think about taking undesirable action, like setting fire to the oil wells they did today?

*We've got a new way to distinguish between the Presidents Bush, thanks to the Iraqis. Recent propoganda reported them calling Dubya "little, evil Bush". Ergo, this makes Daddy "Big, evil Bush". :)

*For those wondering about the motivating forces behind Operation Big Oil, NPR reported yesterday that Congressional Republicans are using the threat (posed incidently by an American invasion) to Iraqi oil as a principle reason to justify opening the ANWR oil reserves in Alaska to drilling. Fortunately, one of the Democrats was savy enough to point this out, and that ANWR shouldn't be exploited til SUVs are required to break double-digits in their gas mileage. Be wary of the stealth domestic agenda this adminstration may try to pass while American attention is diverted elsewhere.

*Somethings nagging at me the more I listen to people saying how dissenters against the war should quiet down and 'rally behind the troops' now that combat's started. Do we really need to say we support the troops? American forces are already the best-armed, best-equipped, best-trained, best-insert-superlative-here military in the world. Is there really someone out there who _actually_ thinks or feels that it would be a good thing for American forces to suffer a high body-count and be jeered at and harrassed for their service time when they return home? It strikes me that there's this underlying, lingering collective guilt trip the country suffers from based on the Vietnam experience. And if it weren't bad enough that the US inflicts this unadmitted pathos upon itself, nationalistic zealots are using it as an excuse to quell dissent and coerce people into sacrificing some of the freedoms fought so dearly for by prior generations of troops.

I have tremendous respect and pride for the men and women of this country in uniform. I personally know several people in service now, most of whom, thank god, are not in a position of danger. At a certain level, I am in awe as I watch the news reporting the dangers they face, because I know that if a bill ever came up to reintroduce the draft, I'm cowardly enough that I'd be across the Canadian border before Congress had finished voting on it. But I think one of the secrets to a democracy's success is the freedom to introduce different and dissenting views, and (this is my Chicago training coming out) it is the introduction of competing ideas and the challenges posed by alternatives that help effectively shape the most efficient policies. I do not think opposing current US foreign policy is incompatible with paying homage to the efforts of the American military. Indeed, I think blind patriotism is a far graver threat and a far greater shirking of American ideals than any that could arise from informed exercises of citizenship.

Anyway...just random thoughts from here in the Midwest. Stay tuned for more sporadic bulletins as the war continues from your very own personal 'talking head' commentator. :)

Matt

P.S. Excerpt from an article at washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64762-2003Mar20.html) talking about the first encounters American forces had as they crossed over the Iraq-Kuwaiti border today:

The operation was uneventful, the only reported contact coming when a herd of the wild camels plodded into view of the platoon's night-vision devices as the soldiers scanned the Iraqi desert.

"This is our first contact of the war," one Bradley crewman reported over his radio. "Terrible."

"We didn't encounter any Iraqis, only a herd of camels, about 100 of them," said Capt. Ronnie Johnson, 37, of Dallas, the commander of Bravo Company. "Our thermal sights picked up what looked like soldiers walking, but once we identified them, they were just camels walking across the desert."

Hours after the encounter, soldiers bantered with Johnson about it over their radios.

"Are the camels out of it, or are they still an option?" asked one gunner.

"Camels can carry bombs, can't they?" queried another.

A third Bradley crewman chimed in: "Camels can actually stare at you pretty hard."

"They spit at you. I know that for a fact," another voice said.