[Bill Davis FR]

can you believe this...military personnel posted to a war zone with no ammo...best of the desperate are in command...thanks bill clinton...

[McGavin999]

Bill, did you read the article that you posted?

[cynicom]

Real ammo??? They might hurt themselves... Stupid military.

[Howie]

When I first learned of this incident I thought "the ragheads are getting braver, they actually attacked someone that can shoot back!".

I should have known.

[jbstrick]

"non-live fire exercise..."

This is why the Marines did not have ammo. It was a training exercise.

[XJarhead]

Clearly, the people who think this is a big deal have no military experience with combat units.

According to the link, this was a non-live fire exercise. Such exercises are extremely common, because you cannot train against an opposing force with live ammo. Otherwise, you'll be killing your own people. There have been plenty of training accidents where exactly that scenario occured --troops who were supposed to have blanks only somehow ended up with live rounds. In most cases, nobody gets hurt. But in some very tragic ones, people have been killed.

Every non-live fire training exercise I ever organized or led began with checking each Marine to ensure that they did not have any live ammunition.

[fogarty]

Bill Clinton has been gone a long time now. Be assured if the Marines were not carrying ammo, it was due to the Rules of Engagment (ROE_ set by much higher up than Clinton-holdovers. Put the blame where it belongs: Rumsfeld and the Operational Commanders. And if there are Clinton holdovers, why has not Rumsfeld gotten rid of them?

The cornerstone of leadership is responsibility and accountability. If the ROEs are STILL screwed up now, after two years of Bush in office, then the buck stops with Rumsfeld. The buck stops with them.

[mg39]

"can you believe this...military personnel posted to a war zone with no ammo...best of the desperate are in command...thanks bill clinton..."

It is October, 2002. What on Earth does Clinton have to do with any of this? It's one thing to criticize Clinton for his real misdeeds, but blaming him for everything that goes wrong borders on lunacy.