Powell on the National Guard

Subject: Powell on the National Guard
From: Ed Rasimus
Date: 2/21/04 8:03 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

On 21 Feb 2004 00:55:35 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

We marched into Germany and got the entire country under control in about 15
minutes. Why can't we get Iraq under control? What thehell is going on here
?



Arthur Kramer

Might want to reconsider that statement with a look at some history
books. First, we marched into Germany in about a year from D-Day to
the fall of Berlin. Then, it took nearly two years before the country
was stabilized and functional again. Follow that with about four more
years of occupation before it was self-governing (although divided).
Then, the reunification only took another forty years.

Conversely, we marched into Iraq and got the country under control in
three weeks. We lost less than one percent of the casualties we had in
the march into Germany in '44-'45. Now, we are less than one year from
the start of hostilities in Iraq, we less than a third of the troops
involved that were participants in the occupation of Germany and the
country is within four months of establishing a democratic
legislature. That's a pretty remarkable achievement.

It will take time to truly democratize the country, but failure to do
so will destabilize the Middle East and simply mean that we will have
to shed a lot more blood against a much more vigorous enemy in the
region at some future date.

I shouldn't be quoting to you what the effort was to take control of
Germany or what the conditions of the occupation were. You were there,
but our post above seems to indicate that you've forgotten the
magnitude of the effort.



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8


I have forgotten nothing. Don't believe everything you read. We moved into
Germany days after VE day and we walked the streets unarmed without the
slightest fear of being attacked. The entire country was crawling with MP's
and everything was under control right off. Don't mix political and economic
issues with getting the military under control. These are totally unrelated
concepts. BTW, did you get to Nam via the National Guard? And if not why not?


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer