10/1    Why does everyone harp of North Korea as a failure of the Bush
        administration? It was Clinton/Carter who gave them the technology
        and time to make it. Kerry rails against unilateralism, but seems
        to be for going into NK alone w/o the Chinese or Japanese. The point
        no one seems to understand that even w/o WMD, Pyongyang has over 1K
        artillery pieces aimed at Seoul and will level it in two hours. Arty
        is and has been the real killer in any conventional war until OIF.
        \_ No, it is not Clinton's fault.  He sent his coke head brother
           over there on a magical musical tour.  Madeleine toasted them
           with champagne.  It's obviously all Bush's fault.
        \_ What's OIF?
           \_ "operation iraqi freedom" woud be my guess. -- ulysses
              \_ Why haven't mortar attacks caused more casualties than they
                 have?  It seems lots of our losses have been IEDs and gun
                 fights.  I'd expect shelling the 'green zone' would be a lot
                 easier.
                 \_ Mortars are short-range weapons and not that damaging.
                    There are 'mortar shelters' constructed all over the
                    place as well. IEDs are effective since there is no
                    way to guard against them except vigilance. RPGs are
                    a bane of the soldier's existence as well.
                 \_ Mortars are damaging, but not accurate.  An infantryman
                    is terrified by mortars shells precisely because they
                    hit somewhat randomly, and there's the nice sound as they
                    are coming in, of course.  The insurgents use mortars
                    because this weapon is ideally suited for a hit-and-run
                    attack.  You drop the shell in the tube, and run as it
                    becomes airborne.  By the time any sort of sound of
                    the incoming shell is detected, the mortar team is
                    long gone. -- ilyas
        \_ Because Republican: stupid/evil, Democrat: smart/good.