Hillbilly Armor

Link courtesy of The Rude Pundit. This is one reason why I never liked the argument (proffered by Al Franken, among others), that "Bill Clinton's military" did so marvelous in the Iraq war. Now, to be fair, I seriously doubt Bob Dole or Bush, Sr. would have ramped up production of heavily armored vehicles either. In fact, there's evidence to the contrary: Bush, Jr. certainly didn't, even though he and his defense experts had two years to yank their heads out of their collective asses and consider the possibilities of an Iraqi insurgency using, oh, I don't know, EXPLOSIVES maybe, against unarmored Humvees and HET's.

Yes, the armor would have really gotten in the way of all those Iraqis attempting to kiss, not in a homosexual way, our boys. But something tells me that our boys aren't expecting any evenings out with the locals--which is why they've taken matters into their own hands (for those who haven't lost hands), and have been using everything from sandbags to sheetmetal as a stop-gap alternative--literally.

No, the real problem here isn't a matter of Rumsfeldian physics, or anything of the sort--instead, it's absolute hubris, combined with a belief in one's own propaganda (that's NEVER a good thing), and an appalling ignorance of the target of liberation that's really the case here. IF the Iraqis had wanted liberation, American-style, the standard Humvees and HET's would likely be plenty good enough. The fact of the insurgency is a pretty strong indication that we're getting the thumbs down.

Not liking Saddam shouldn't have been confused with loving the USA. Thinking otherwise is like quitting your job after buying the lottery ticket, instead of waiting to see if you actually won the jackpot.