"They won't come out and fight like men"

[teryang]

Reminds me of the old Bill Cosby routine on the unfairness of the revolutionary war tactics of the Americans. Goes something like, "you British lost the toss, you stand in straight lines in the open with bright red uniforms. After shooting remain standing while reloading. The Americans won the toss, you hide behind bushes, rocks and trees, and run and hide after shooting."

IEDs only a nuisance????? It's the old line, "no challenge to tactical supremacy." Lines of communication not secure. Commerce unable to take place.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041205/325/f7x8w.html

I.E.D. spells death for troops in Iraq

By Alastair Macdonald

<On the front line, they put it more bluntly: "These roadside bombs are killing us," said Navy medic Seamus Marron, whose platoon lost the two Marines to an IED last week, leaving their young comrades rattled and frustrated by a hidden enemy...>

<"They won't come out and fight like men," said a Marine in the unit. Given the U.S. firepower, that is hardly surprising.>

<Commanders view the IEDs as more nuisance than threat to their supremacy but daily attacks test troop resolve and mean soldiers can travel only in heavily armoured convoys.>

<"You get good at spotting them. But we never catch the guys.">

[Deja Q]

1. Okay, Marines. Why not give your enemy the same weapons and THEN

cry if you still lose.

This isn't a game of football. They won't play by your rules. And you're hardly men for having the bigger gun (that probably compensates for something much smaller).

War is hell. It is not to be glorified and, unlike video games, the enemy will not gladly walk around in the open doing a little jig so he can freely be shot to death. :eyes:

[NJ_Lib]

2. Come out and fight like men?... hahaha

... Isn't that like my six foot eight brother-in-law, yelling for me at five-foot two to come out and fight him like a man...?

C'mon...


When you fight "like men", doesn't the fight have to be fair?

[bowens43]

6. 'won't come out and fight like men'

is perhaps the stupidest quote I've seen from these guys yet (other then the 'Jesus would have used napalm' one). Is the US military fighting like men when they have a vastly superior technology? Is dropping bombs from supersonic jets fighting like men? Is using AWACS planes fighting like men? How about daisy cutters? Armored vehicles?

The resistance is fighting a very intelligent war. They know the only chance they have of liberating their country from the occupiers is to use the methods that they chosen.

[cornermouse]

3. Just a little bit silly isn't he?

After all, this IS war. The idea is to survive to fight as long as possible...

[hollowdweller]

4. Not doing much to bolster the "Powell Doctrine" huh?

Everybody looked at the Gulf war success and raved about the Powell doctrine and how we had finally got it down since Vietnam.
However driving a force out of another country was not like Vietnam.
Now we are in another situation like Vietnam and there is no difference. Also Powell is now seen as a bootlicker.

[MatrixEscape]

5. All is fair in love and war?

"Be a man! Git yer ass out here in plain site so I can kill you with advanced weaoponry!"

Yeah, right! What is this a game of Scrabble?

[Make7]

7. How can we possibly win....

if they won't fight by the rules we've made for them? This all may just come down to not having enough translators to inform the other side of the proper way to conduct themselves.

:) Make7

[Ready4Change]

8. We've learned nothing from 'Nam.

We won the full out military battle, but we've no clue how to win a fight against guerilla tactics. And in the meantime, we're practically TRAINING them how to fight against us.

I grew up watching exactly this type of thing going on in 'Nam. Nothing's changed.