by James Glaser
May 1, 2003

I'm not talking about nuclear, biological nor chemical weapons. We all know that America has a lead in these weapons and no country is going to catch us. In fact if one does try, we have told the world we will stop them.

I am talking about our Marines and Soldiers out in battle. Do you ever wonder about all the reports of the Iraqis shooting first and we return fire killing and wounding many while we suffer no casualties? How about those reports of 500 Iraqis killed and one American wounded? How can this be?

First of all we have to look at training. That is what American troops do constantly. We have a professional military and our men and women in uniform constantly train week in and week out. We have war games in our country and overseas.

We have wars. Yes, there are many Marines and Soldiers that have been to war several times for us. It would be nothing unusual for a special ops soldier to have fought in four or more wars in their career.

American troops have only the finest of weapons and equipment and that equipment is maintained very well. We have tanks that can shoot much farther than the enemies, targeting systems that would amaze even the guys from the first Gulf War. When we moved into Iraq this time, media reporters told of seeing tanks and armored personnel carriers as far as the eye could see. We have very few "ground pounders" now, our troops are fast and mobile with more fire power and armor than any army in history. We have "eyes" in outer space looking at enemy troop movements from satellites. Our own troops and their movements are plotted with computers at military headquarters hundreds of miles away, where there is little chance of an attack.

That still does not tell us why we overpowered those Iraqi troops so easily, but I think that goes back to training too. Most of the Iraqi troops were conscripts that were shooting their fathers weapons. Twenty year and older tanks, AK47 assault rifles that might have been used back in the 70s against Iran. I even saw one report of the capture of a flintlock rifle.

Iraqi troops were mobile too, but they were using pickup trucks against our tanks. That is where training or lack of it comes into play. While America has all the money it needs to train with, Iraqi troops most likely couldn't practice that much. It costs a lot to teach personnel how to fire Artillery and Machine guns well enough to be very proficient.

Our Air Force had years of bombing in Iraq's No Fly Zone. Those in the Artillery had time in Afghanistan to get really good. While sitting in Kuwait, troops were constantly firing weapons so as to be at peak readiness.

I have said this before, America spends at least 200 times more on our military than any one we attack. We have weapons that our foe never even thought of. Plus our personal want to be there. Our troops are making a career out of killing people and they get good at it.

Lets face it, the cream of the Iraqi Army was destroyed or buried under the sand in their bunkers in the first Gulf War. In the twelve years since that war, new troops were forced into the Army and most had no experience in real warfare.

I will admire the courage of those young Iraqis in trying to defend their homeland. I have heard the same from many of our own troops, they just couldn't understand how they could attack tanks with rifles. I would have to say they didn't know any better. Really think about it. Iraqi troops sitting in trenches around Baghdad as we bombed the heck out of them with B-52s and Jet Fighters. Who ever was in charge of those poor guys had no idea of what they were doing. The Iraqis had guts, but they didn't have the weapons nor the training needed to have much effect on American troops.

I have heard our troops speak of some of these battles as slaughters and turkey shoots. This takes nothing away from the courage of our troops, but does show us just how far ahead we are of these third world countries we are attacking.

After this war is really over and our troops come home, the Iraqi people will be raising monuments to the brave young men that gave their all for their country. Veterans of that war will tell stories of their friends that stood and fought the greatest military force the world has ever seen.

I hope those Chicken Hawks in Washington that have never fought in any way for our country, don't start crowing about this victory. And I must say it gauls me to see George Bush strut and smile as he talks about this war. We did slaughter thousands of under trained Iraqi troops whose weapons were not even in our league.

We killed and maimed thousands of innocent civilians including many many children. We would be prudent if were a little humble about this "victory." Many the world over have been attacked by us in the past and they know that Iraq had no chance what so ever to defend their homeland.

Now every country knows that their only chance against us are weapons of mass destruction and those in Washington have set the whole world on a quest to get them.

Post Script Thanks to Tom Wienstroer for pointing our the disparity between our troops and Iraq's.