Here is an example of Iraqi children dancing and cheering

[NNN0LHI]

Local Iraq children dance and cheer as they set a stranded U.S. military truck on fire, Friday, Aug. 8, 2003, on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq. No soldiers were present during the fire. A U.S. soldier was shot and killed in western Baghdad, the military reported Friday, the third American soldier reported slain in the capital in the past two days. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

[bif]

1. They sure love us over there.

n/t

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. Easy to imagine that running all over the front pages here

if it were a Soviet truck in Afghanistan 20 years ago.

[Terwilliger]

3. I saw something about hundreds of vehicles being abandoned

because there isn't any service and support

I mean....is this 2003?

[IkeWarnedUs]

4. Service and support problems

David Wood from the Newhouse News Service did this story August 1, 2003 about the problems stemming from the privatization of military services.

Some of Army's Civilian Contractors Are No-Shows in Iraq

<snip>

Civilian contractors may work well enough in peacetime, critics say. But what about in a crisis? "We thought we could depend on industry to perform these kinds of functions," Lt. Gen. Charles S. Mahan, the Army's logistics chief, said in an interview.

One thing became clear in Iraq. "You cannot order civilians into a war zone," said Linda K. Theis, an official at the Army's Field Support Command, which oversees some civilian logistics contracts. "People can sign up to that -- but they can also back out."

As a result, soldiers lived in the mud, then the heat and dust. Back home, a group of mothers organized a drive to buy and ship air conditioners to their sons. One Army captain asked a reporter to send a box of nails and screws to repair his living quarters and latrines.

For almost a decade, the military has been shifting its supply and support personnel into combat jobs and hiring defense contractors to do the rest. This shift has accelerated under relentless pressure from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to make the force lighter and more agile.

more: http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/wood080103.html

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. after a decade of GOP controlled congress

yeah, blame that on Clinton freepers.