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Old 7th Jun 2006, 15:35
  #812 (permalink)  
chuks
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Germany
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As to high-tech solutions to grass-roots problems, I was chatting with a retired Air Force guy not long ago.

He had been a navigator on an AC-130 squadron that was attempting to preserve law and order by blasting the road traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He and his Aircraft Commander got orders for R&R, even though they wanted to go as a complete crew. While he was on leave the bad guys/good guys (choose one) traded in their bamboo spears on SAM missiles and blew his AC-130 right out of the sky! Up to that point we had been rather smug about having the upper hand, technology-wise.

It looks to me as though events in the Delta are following a similar arc to the war in Viet Nam. For whatever reason the locals are anti-government, with not much being done on the 'hearts and minds' front, even if that were seriously do-able. What passes for a military solution just looks like random applications of violence. Will the next stage be moving to a sort of 'Strategic Hamlet' coupled with a 'Free-Fire Zone' strategy? That would be to say, either live under control or else expect to be fair game. That would be the logical next step, not that it would be a good idea.

It would be interesting to see some American military advisors coming in to try and re-fight Viet Nam in Nigeria. For profit, of course! Hey, they could get lucky and win, and if they lose, well... how much worse a mess could they make of things? As hinted at by my esteemed colleague SASless, if there's a way to sign a contract and make a quick 10% then stand by for an announcement about this coming soon.

What the heck, maybe they could finish putting all those Schweizer 300's together, find some Avgas to run them on and go do some aerial reconaissance? Nah, that's what 'they' would expect them to do. Better to just use this crisis to buy something new, shiny and expensive that should sort all the problems out as if by ju-ju. There must be a warehouse somewhere in California stuffed full of Robert Strange McNamara Commemorative Model Bad Guy Detectors built into life-like replicas of tropical fruit.

'Tell Friday to go back to the market with this pineapple. It is beeping!'
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