You've never had to make these decisions, or likely, work for people who did
It's always war in the Mid East Chief. Sometimes it's fighting, other times it's positioning and influence operations
The Cole was there to further a strategy of engagement with Yemen
Tactically, it didn't work out.
But that doesn't mean the idea of maintaining influence in Yemen is wrong
Element of risk to young Americans, you betcha
Bad guys turned out to be better than we thought
We took a hit, people died, we're still in Yemen and it's paying us dividends in the war on terror.
You'd have us take our ball and go home
Franks only took over from Zinni a year before 9-11
All the basing plans, all the prepositioned site construction, all the agreements with those pesky Arab nations you seem to so despise, the relationship with Pakistan that allowed us to prosecute OEF and a lot more, that was all done on Zinni's watch. He set us up for success
You malign a good man
G'night chief, Happy new year
Qatar-6
Yes, I was fortunate to never work with an incompete arse who would put his people into harms way for political points...how very fortunate for me. How utterly unfortunate for the crew of the USS Cole.