Another interesting "Fresh Air"

Post #91,952 by rcareaga 3/26/03 5:22:35 PM Reply	Another interesting "Fresh Air" From their website: Wednesday: Journalist Joseph Galloway is military affairs correspondent for Knight Ridder's Washington bureau. He was a war correspondent in Vietnam and co-authored the national bestseller (with Lt. Gen (ret.) Hal G. Moore) We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam. He was the only civilian decorated with the medal of valor for his actions during the Vietnam war, rescuing wounded soldiers under fire in the Ia Drang Valley. Galloway also covered the first Gulf War. Recently Galloway was special consultant to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Galloway is also co-author of the book, Triumph Without Victory: The Unreported History of the Persian Gulf Conflict. ______________________________________________ It may be that this guy has an ax to grind, but if so he ground it exceptionally well--against Rumsfeld's head--in today's interiew. It's McNamara redux--only Rummy's old enough to know better. Galloway's Pentagon sources hate the SecDef like poison, think he's got his head lodged re war planning, and have gone to the reporter in advance of the conflict to make damn sure their reservations were logged beforehand. Fascinating half hour/45 minutes. cordially, "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
Post #92,020 by Ashton 3/26/03 9:00:20 PM Reply	Heard him too. A no-BS kinda guy. Saved me trouble of finding link.. pity no instant transcripts. Terry Gross is a superb interviewer on any topic and I think, displays far less ego-intrusion than Charlie Rose. Seemed to me he covered most of the bases, without loaded adjectives - even matter-of-factly. His comment on the unreliability of ex-Iraqi sources and Israeli Intel as well -- as feeding our own wishful thinking about Iraqis turning out to wave (our) flags as we sail into the Capital -- was almost a throwaway. Then the factoid that the troops still in Texas (our only backups) can 'meet' their weapons after the ships (already waiting ~3 weeks to land in Turkey!) get through the Suez to Kuwait, unload etc. in about TEN days - equally telling. So much for a pincer operation.. we were in such a hurry to bring the Goodness. Getting ominous, what these snake-[oil] wankers have rammed through the ovine Congress undebated, untested - probably mostly even un-READ, like the fucking PATRIOT Act. And there's no satisfaction in neener-neener on fuck-ups this far-reaching.. Ashton
Post #92,046 by rcareaga 3/26/03 9:18:21 PM Reply	remarkable that... these guys launch a war for immediate domestic advantage and long-range imperial goals, and are so self-deluded that they can't take the trouble to do it competently. (But what the hell--it's only wogs and Little People being killed or maimed...not Our Set...) shaking head, "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
Post #92,109 by tjsinclair 3/27/03 12:54:19 AM Reply	Fresh Air available as an audio download It's among the subscription content on [link\|http://www.audible.com\|http://www.audible.com] -- US$14.95/month for basic which entitles you to one audiobook and one month's worth of any subscription content, which includes shows like Fresh Air and All Things Considered. Disclaimer: My only association with Audible is as a satisfied subscriber. Tom Sinclair "Man, I love it when the complete absence of a plan comes together." - [link\|http://radio.weblogs.com/0104634/\|Ernie the Attorney]
Post #92,125 by Ashton 3/27/03 5:09:46 AM Reply	Thanks.. Maybe makes more sense for me than paying half a Kilobuck/year for 500 channels with Nothing on. Of course too - if I tune in live, (and weren't too lazy to record) Ashton
Post #92,209 by tjsinclair 3/27/03 1:08:38 PM Reply	It works well for me (a bit OT) Between my Ph.D work and my job, I'm on the road a lot and I prefer to listen to things on my schedule. I'm gradually building my collection of Terry Pratchett audiobooks (which are hilarious and really pick up my spirits) and browsing through the subscription content for stuff to which I wouldn't normally be exposed, like Fresh Air and All Things Considered. My wife enjoys it, too, so there's some content (like [link\|http://www.saysyou.org\|Says You] that I only play when she and I are together so she won't miss anything. Tom Sinclair "Man, I love it when the complete absence of a plan comes together." - [link\|http://radio.weblogs.com/0104634/\|Ernie the Attorney]
Post #92,180 by drewk 3/27/03 11:35:48 AM Reply	Think I caught some of that I only heard about 10 minutes of it while running errands last night. Asked why we keep hearing that the resistance to the ground war is stiffer than anticipated -- as in, "Why didn't we anticipate this" -- the interviewee said that the military planners didn't seem to have Rumsfeld's ear. Asked who he was listening to, subject said the Air Force was telling Rumsfeld that they could win this thing from the air (again). The Air Force still doesn't seem to grasp the concept of asymmetrical warfare. Their high value weapons are mostly useful against high-value targets: buildings, facilities, tanks. Of course they don't really like going after individual tanks, either. They'd rather carpet-bomb a division. They just aren't set up to fight a dispersed foe made up mostly of dismounted infantry with man-carried anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. This is why we keep hearing Iraqi tactics described as "guerilla type tactics". When facing a superior foe, you don't stand toe-to-toe with him and trade punches. Anyone who is "surprised" that the Iraqis would do what they're doing might as well don the red coats now. === Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.

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