e a trivial issue, but the logistics are simplified by the weight savings of the lighter, more compact rifle and ammunition. That's not so trivial when you're fighting in a remote area half-way around the world. It's not so trivial for the light infantryman who has to pack the rifle and ammunition, either. The lighter cartridge produces substantially less recoil, requiring substantially less training for basic familiarization and making the rifle more usable by smaller statured people. This is significant not only to our arming of South Vietnam, but to the increased numbers of women entering our own armed forces at that time, and to the increased urbanization and decreased familiarity with weapons of US recruits of both sexes. The adoption of the M16 in the 1960s and its subsequent evolution parallel vast changes in our military and in our military thinking, not trivial things at all.
So OBL is traveling through the mountains on horseback with 300 bodyguards, eh? Mullah Omar And Ayman Al-Zawahiri are with him, too. Chief Joseph was the last one to move that many people through the hills on horseback and get away with it. The cavalry didn't have helicopters back then, though.
Says FoxNews There have also been reports that bin Laden this week sent an e-mail to an Arabic newspaper in London slamming a Saudi peace plan adopted at an Arab summit in Beirut. Like the bin Laden sightings in Afghanistan, however, those reports could not be confirmed.
If bin Laden were alive we'd have another tape by now. I've got to believe he'd do that to maintain his position of power with the al Qaeda and the Arab world, as much as to taunt us.
Friday, March 29, 2002- - -
Visiting space aliens won't get this. I'd like to restage the scene with the next bunch of Junior High kids who wander through the yard on their way back to school from MiniMart. Fortunately, I suspect they know this..
Ah yes. the Game of Princes in action. We've been here before. You didn't seriously expect them to pay any attention to technicalities like the constitution, did you?
Some friends must have been having a day much like many of mine of late, when they wrote this into an official document:
A brief perusal of a number of recent contract reports has resulted in the compilation of a list of some commonly used archaeological terms. This list includes component, occupation. activity area, assemblage, episode, cultural strata, natural components, tradition, stage, phase, and horizon. In most cases, explicit and well conceived definitions of these critical terms were not included in the text. Apparently a misconception is that these terms are self-explanatory and convey only one distinct impression to the reader. In fact, this is not the case.
No it's not. But we don't usually say so quite so explicitly, as often as I'd have liked to.
Incidentally, the Concha y Toro Chilean Cabernet/Merlot is nice for a cheap swill. Peppery with some blackberry flavor and good body, but a little weak on the finish.
It seems we have a problem with prairie dogs in Worland. Along with all the other critters, they're probably under a lot of stress due to the drought and they're moving into town. This causes the neighbors to complain. They are rats and carry some lovely diseases, including plague. Then the exterminators come to really give them something to complain about. It seems their method of extermination is to flood the holes with propane gas, give it some time to reach the optimum fuel/air mix, and then drop in a match. I imagine if the explosion doesn't kill them it would burn all the oxygen from the air. The neighbors complain about the noise. And it makes me wonder if the folks clearing all those caves in Afghanistan know about this..
Via Bill Quick, an interesting piece in the NY Post on the end game in Afghanistan. As much as I'd like to agree and like to see the al Qaeda exterminated, there's a problem with this scenario.
John Ringo equates the al Qaeda with North Vietnamese troops, when it might be more apt to equate them with the Viet Cong. The al Qaeda aren't uniformed troops