"George Z. Bush" wrote
"D. Strang" wrote

I served in the military, and I was in both the Infantry, and a crewmember in
the USAF. I retired in 1993 after 25 years.

I spent 8 years in the Iran-Iraq war,.....

You spent it doing what, and on which side....Iran or Iraq? AFAIK, our only
involvement in that war was that we taught Saddam Hussein's army how to use
chemical weapons, and we shared intelligence data with them that we'd gathered
about our joint enemy, Iran. So what were you doing during those eight years,
teaching them how to use mustard gas?

The USAF flew 24 hour orbits for 8 years using RC-135, E-3, and Naval assets
in the Gulf. The mission was to protect the Saudi oil fields. Later we also had the
Earnest Will operation, which was the Kuwait reflagging, and war with Iran.

.....and witnessed the attack on the U.S.S. Stark.

How did you happen to witness that attack? Surely, not from your vantage point
in your infantry foxhole, so it must have been from your airplane. How about
filling us in on how you happened to see it?

I transferred to the USAF in 1978 after I got my Masters degree. We tracked the
Iraqi pilot as he entered the Gulf, until he returned to Iraq. We also tracked his
Exocet to the Stark using radar.

.....I spent my last years on active duty in the air war that ejected Iraq
from Kuwait,

I think the half million or so ground troops we committed to kicking the Iraqis
out of Kuwait would take exception to your conclusion that the air war had
accomplished that all by itself. I expect that Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf
might also have had a few things to say on the subject by way of argument.

I'm talking about my little world, not the whole military force. Of course we didn't
personally eject anyone.

.....and two years of wasting our treasury on containing Iraq. For 24 years
we
fought that country, and millions of Iraqis, and Iranians died.

24 years? How about the time we were helping Iraq deal with their Iranian
neighbors during their 8 year old war, which was right in the middle of the 24
years you're talking about?

During those 8 years, my only mission was to protect the oil fields. I don't have
any personal knowledge, other then tactics against airborne threats out of Iran,
Iraq, or the Soviet Union.

You know, a lot of us have problems remember details of things we've done and
said in the past, and it isn't a crime to have to admit it. But if you expect
to have any credibility in this forum, you're going to need to do a little more
homework and get your facts right before you start mouthing off with a lot of
erroneous BS. I probably wouldn't have had any questions to ask you at all if
you hadn't tossed such obvious bloopers out there for us rubes to swallow hook,
line, and sinker.

Take a pill.