[PEN-L:36272] flashback

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: flashback

hearing about the "terrorists" repeatedly harassing the US Marines in Iraq with relatively primitive AK-47s induced me to have a flashback to Junior High. I remember hearing about these "Redcoats" who had superior arms and numbers but marched in straight lines and were obvious targets for the heroic "Patriots" who hid behind trees and bushes and picked them off one by one using more primitive weapons such as squirrel rifles. Somehow the latter weren't terrorists and somehow the idea that terrorism involved attacking civilians has been abandoned. (Of course, as my wife points out, the Marines _had been_ civilians in the past...)

Of course, the battle hasn't turned yet to favor the insurgents the way it did for the "Patriots."

BTW, I hear about Gen. Tommy Franks' strategy in Iraq being new. It's not that different from the German Blitzkreig or Patton's sweep across France. Perhaps technology has improved, though the big difference is psychological warfare, which has been pretty successful against the media.

Jim