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| Middle East |
| No War Before This Weekend For Sure |
| 2003-03-06 |
| One thing is certain: The war on Iraq wonât start before this weekend. The âembedâ journalists have not been issued their gas masks, and the Pentagon has told its US headquarters in Kuwait that embedding journalists is a âno goâ until the gas masks arrive. The masks are due to arrive here by the end of the week. If anything happened, all these soon-to-be-embedded journalists would miss it. The gas masks are stuck back in North Carolina. Apparently delayed due to bad weather, they are to get here by Friday. Here at the Kuwait Hilton, the journalistsâ measurements for protective NBC (nuclear, biological, or chemical) suits have been taken, and military-issued IDs with photo are waiting. But the journalists will get nothing until itâs official, and itâs not official until they get their masks. |
| Posted by:Tom |
| #8 DS There are huge supply depots all over the Middle East op area. Since you were in the service you know that in a situation like this, there is a ton of stuff in these depots and no one is waiting for shipments of gas masks or canisters or suits or MREs from the States. The journalists that are part of the Pentagon's pool are issued gear. Those who aren't in the pool and want to hang out in Kuwait are on their own. No war is being held up because of a bunch of scribblers. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2003-03-06 19:32:37 |
| #7 read the article again, the snag is not the time for measurements or even obtaining the id cards. they aren't going to release the gear to them until the masks get in from CONUS. This is a shipping problem, and I know there were plenty of times we couldn't get something dropped out to us, there was plenty of it in the rear, but getting it out to where we are was a different matter all together. maybe even the media doesn't have enough pull to arrange airflow in the midst of wether problems. It happens. -DS "the horns hold up the halo." |
| Posted by: DeviantSaint 2003-03-06 16:34:18 |
| #6 Utter rubbish. Gas masks come in 3 or 4 different sizes, so it's a matter of walking down to the local supply depot. Ditto for the CBR suits: small, medium, large and elephant. Hell, my reserve center has a stock of gas masks and suits! As far as the military ID photos, the last time I was in Newport, RI, it took exactly 6 minutes for me to get issued a new ID card. Granted all of my info is already in DEERS, but I believe that all of the journalists who are going to be allowed to be with the troops have already been prescreened. To repeat, this article is nonsense, written by someone who has no understanding of the US military. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2003-03-06 15:04:37 |
| #5 While I have my doubts that the Arab News can be trusted, it amuses me to no end. To actually think that journalist gas masks would hold up the war! General to GWB: "Sorry, can't start now -- the journalists have no gas masks!" I'm sure there are plenty of soldiers that don't like Bush's attitude. So what? Who expects 300,000 Americans to agree on anything. Only Saddam can get 100% in the polls. |
| Posted by: Tom 2003-03-06 14:58:02 |
| #4 I'm a bit irritated to see that the title is now "No War Before..." instead of the "War Before This Weekend For Sure" that I had intended. Fred, are you messin' with my humor, or did I mess up? |
| Posted by: Tom 2003-03-06 15:58:11 |
| #3 doonesbury had a cute comic strip recently where a grunt had asked sargeant BD for permission to enbed Ashley Bansfield |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-03-06 15:42:04 |
| #2 Sounds like a great excuse to start the war without having journalists embedded. And just where would they be embedded for air strikes? Or maybe its just the Arab News's masks that haven't arrived yet... |
| Posted by: Hermetic 2003-03-06 14:31:16 |
| #1 Can the Arab News be trusted? Later in that article they "quote" a US soldier who doesn't like Bush's âcowboy gung-ho attitude.â |
| Posted by: growler 2003-03-06 14:14:40 |