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From: moshe@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Moshe Yudkowsky)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: What to do with the "Peace Dividend"
Message-ID: <13223@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 90 01:43:55 GMT
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From: moshe@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Moshe Yudkowsky)

In some article, Richard Johnson writes:
>
>Please notice - I agree completely with the earlier comments about
>armor needing to be fairly close to where it is needed, *before*
>it's needed.  We may never be able to adequately carry tanks in
>airplanes...

Charles Fair wrote a really suberb book several years ago, called 
_From the Jaws of Victory_.  Dedicated to Ambrose Burnside, it was about 
bad generals throughout the ages.

In a footnote, Mr. Fair relates something a German officer who 
participated in _Barbarossa_ told him.  _Barbarossa_, the invasion of
Russia by Germany, took place during the late summer of 1941(?).  It
seems that as the German forces rolled unopposed through the Russian 
border, they found vast stocks of prepositioned Russian hardware, 
from bullets to tanks.
The Russians had decided on prepositioning their equipment, but 
neglected to mobilize in time.

Prepositioning equipment, let's say for use in a fight with supporting
our NATO dependents, is an open invitation for a preemptive
strike with chemical weapons.  In fact, the hardware on Diego Garcia
probably isn't too safe either.  I doubt that Iran, Iraq, or Libya would
have any compunctions about a strike against a fortress on an island.

        Moshe Yudkowsky   moshe@ihnet.att.com  att!ihnet!moshe
"Here's to our friends, the good guys.""And here's to our enemies,
the bad guys.""And here's to the hope that we can tell the difference."
						-- Keith Laumer
-- 
        Moshe Yudkowsky   moshe@ihnet.att.com  att!ihnet!moshe
"Here's to our friends, the good guys.""And here's to our enemies,
the bad guys.""And here's to the hope that we can tell the difference."
						-- Keith Laumer