Am I Right to be Angry About This?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Soldiers have a right to *****, but, they're supposed to ***** to each other and not to the press.

At least that's what was SOP when I was in the Army.

That's because the regular Army can do a lot more to you than the reserves can, in general. What are they gonna do, ship him back to Pennsylvania or whereever he's from for an Art. 32?

If he was a regular, you could just have him on latrine duty for life, then arrange a transfer at your convenience to the Korean DMZ. Say, arriving in December.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


No, it's it's very own FUBAR. Vietnam was just sooooo 60's.

So there's no Ferengi yet?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


So there's no Ferengi yet?

Ever been to an open air market in a major Arab city? There've been Ferengi here for thousands of years.

[Kidlicious]

Holy Sh1t!

[DanS]

Not at all.

Thanks for the reality check.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by DanS
Not at all.

Thanks for the reality check.

I figured I'd summarize and give you the short version for your second question.

[DanS]

By the way, I agree with you that the neocons took the wrong approach here by going lean. As you point out, we must succeed, so you would think they would want a healthy margin of error. Also, it reinforces the fact that the neocons aren't taking all of the costs and potential costs into account when they propose action.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Reality is that occupation costs more than fighting - not on a day by day basis for ordnance and fuel, but most other categories are the same, then you get to lump in all the social services costs, etc.

When you get to what we should be spending, to make this work, then the numbers are pretty horrifying.

[DanS]

Well, do you have any sort of breakout or totals (even vague) on what you believe those costs would be?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Not off the top of my head, but IMO, we need to start simulating an economy, until one gets built. Give people basic stuff to buy, pay them, try to find stuff for them to do other than shoot at us. Take sanctions level income per capita and jump it about 50% for starters, plus the costs of imported food and other basic items. 25 million Iraqis, give or take - so maybe 2 billion and change a month, borrowed against future oil sales. That number would be reduced pretty fast over time as a real economy and real jobs start developing.

We also need to do a quick inventory of needed mechanical infrastructure - power plants, sewage treatment and water treatment, etc., and probably buy 2-3 billion worth of pumps and parts and package treatment stuff right off the bat.

[David Floyd]

Well, we ****ed their **** up, so we should probably pay for it. Let's take the money out of the US military to fix what the US military blew up.

[Q Classic]

Well, do you have any sort of breakout or totals (even vague) on what you believe those costs would be?

bush and co. apparently didn't.

[DanS]

bush and co. apparently didn't.

Of course they didn't give a total on what MtG believed the costs would be.

[Kuciwalker]

I would hope not...

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by DanS
bush and co. apparently didn't.

Of course they didn't give a total on what MtG believed the costs would be.

They'd never sell the whole package if they disclosed the costs...