Protect your homeland from the serpent

THE EDITOR: Give me the King George V edition of the Holy Bible any day in preference to the New International Version and the Amplified Version. None of them could replicate the romantic and poetic language of the King George as in books like Isaiah, Job, Proverbs etc.

Those Arabian people who had nothing but wide expanses of desert sand the tropical equivalent of the prairies in North America, the Steppes in Russia and the Veld in South Africa looked up to the blue skies and were inspired by the Supreme and the stars and moon which even we, in the west, have always looked upon as inspirational and romantic. That is why Saddam in 1991 could picturesquely refer to the “Mother of All Wars” and now the information Minister referred in the past few days to the coalition logistic line as a snake winding from the south for 500 km and which they intended to cut up into small pieces.

That snake has today entered the international airport without any injuries of significance to prevent it, anaconda-like, squeezing the regime to death. I do not support the invasion but as far as military tactics, the Iraq regime seems to have had no plan whatsoever for dealing with the reptile. Imagine a military strategy where, like a householder, you barricade yourself and family in the bedroom, while all the other areas of the house are left unlocked, open and unprotected with all your valuable possessions for the burglars to rampage as they care.

What sense does it make to give up your entire country to an invading force to defend only the capital which can be easily overruled. That is real medieval tactics especially when the invading force is militarily superior in every department especially with total control of the air. In the second World War, Japan’s defence was to hold on to the extreme perimeter of its conquests to make the opposing forces pay heavily in lives for every inch of ground, in order to defend its homeland.

I can’t remember the specific island but suicide waves of Japanese launched themselves against US forces to preserve the islands and avoid the capture of valuable airfields from which US planes could have landed attacks on Japan itself. But two planes with experimental nuclear weapons released on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended all that. The planes could not even return to their home base because there was no real air refuelling as it has been developed today. They had to land after delivering their pay load in either China or Burma. The Japanese military was however more sensible than the Iraqis in recognising the devastation and opted for surrender, up to today the Iraqis are still fighting on. What stupidity! What a waste!

HERMAN  GRIFFITH
Petit Bourg
San Juan