Empty Tanks
"Most people know the story of the F-111s adapting to the
Iraqi tank patterns, being able to find them buried in the sand
because of the differentials in heat as the night cooled and
the tanks stayed warm. ... The Iraqi tankers became accustomed
to this idea that, if they slept in their tank, they might die.
"Well, just the other day I came across a briefing done
by an independent analysis agency ... for the Army, trying to
explain why it was so easy for the American Army to beat the
Iraqi army. One of the conclusions ... is that there was a difference
in training. The difference in training was exemplified by the
fact that, when American tankers came across the horizon to face
the Iraqi tankers, those stupid Iraqi tankers weren't even sleeping
in their tanks like a well-trained American tanker would.
"These different interpretations of the same event tend
to confuse the issue, don't they?"
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles D. Link in Oct.
31, 1997, remarks at an Eaker Institute Colloquy held in Washington.
Course Correction
"An American general asked a Polish major familiar with
the details of a particular rail complex [in Poland] whether
we could reasonably expect to transport a NATO armored division
through it in one week's time. The amused major replied by asking
the general how many Soviet heavy divisions he thought they planned
on moving through the same location when the trains were going
the other way."
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen in Oct. 21
testimony on NATO expansion before the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
Where Honor Is Found
"There's been no end to the controversy surrounding the
purpose and conduct of the Vietnam War. But, whatever history's
ultimate verdict about that war, one truth remains unassailable:
Those who were called to duty there found their honor in their
answer, if not in their summons. By that standard, our friends
who did not come home with us are ranked among the most honorable
Americans to have ever worn the uniform of this country."
Sen. John McCain (RAriz.), who spent nearly
six years as a POW in North Vietnamese prisons, in a Sept. 19,
1997, Washington speech honoring POWs and MIAs from all wars.
The Navy and the JSF
"It [the Joint Strike Fighter] is a very expensive plane
to develop. We are going to have to come up with a cheaper way
to develop this aircraft. ... There are so many unique requirements
being put on it by the services that the program could have trouble."
Vice Adm. Donald L. Pilling, deputy chief of naval
operations, quoted by Thomas E. Ricks in the Sept. 9, 1997, Wall
Street Journal.
Shadowy Presence
"If every carrier battle group in the Navy's fleet were
posted off the Korean peninsula, the entire armada would fail
to provide as much 'preventive' influence as the single Army
division and Air Force units deployed there now."
Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, USA (Ret.), former director
of the National Security Agency, in an article published in the
July/August 1997 issue of Foreign Affairs.
Sounds Like "Quagmire"
"In June 1998, [Stabilization Force's] mission will end,
as President Clinton has said, but the international community's
engagement will continue. Whether an international security presence
is part of that engagement, and what role the United States might
play, remains to be decided. ... The United States has an important
interest in the establishment of a lasting peace in Bosnia. The
best way to advance that interest is through the framework agreed
upon in those [Dayton] negotiations. That's why America has a
significant and continuing stake in Dayton's success."
National Security Adviser Samuel Berger in a Sept.
23, 1997, speech at Georgetown University, Washington.
Still Sounds Like "Quagmire"
"Let me just say, again, very simply, that we have said
that there will be an international presence in the [Balkan]
region, politically and economically, because we have interests
in the region for strategic as well as humanitarian reasons.
No decisions have been made as far as the presence of US forces
or NATO forces, following the termination of the SFOR mission
in June 1998."
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at a Sept.
24, 1997, press briefing in New York following a meeting of foreign
ministers on Bosnia.
Uncle Schwarzenegger
"Never before in modern history has a country dominated
the Earth so totally as the United States does today. American
idols and icons are shaping the world from Katmandu to Kinshasa,
from Cairo to Caracas. ... The Americans are acting, in the absence
of limits put to them by anybody or anything, as if they own
a blank check in their 'McWorld.' Strengthened by the end of
Communism and an economic boom, Washington seems to have abandoned
its self-doubts from the Vietnam trauma. America is now the [Arnold]
Schwarzeneg-ger of international politics: showing off muscles,
obtrusive, intimidating."
From Der Spiegel, the German
newsmagazine, as quoted in the Nov. 4, 1997, Washington
Post.
