If you look for forums where active duty folks hang around, you'll find most all of them think Kerry is a fool. Such gems as how he will "double special forces"
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2004/10/special_forces_.html to fight terror seems to strike nerves within the online communities at Lightfighter Tactical, Tactical Forums, SOCNet, and ProfessionalSoldiers to include a few. You can't come up with an order and automatically double warriors that take years and years of training. Read any book which touches on selection and training and you will find that only a few percent of those that sign up ever make it. There are always people who are itching to sign up and give it a shot. Maybe he'll lower standards? That will fly just as good as when the Rangers lost their distinctive black beret.
As for Iraq, visiting those forums as well as blogs, and the militaryphotos site gives an impression that yes there is continuing violence, but things improve daily there also. Soldiers and marines pass out schoolbooks, backpacks, school supplies and equip classrooms. The Iraqi national guard is building up, as well as police forces (which are targeted severely, but that hasn't stopped those that seek to join). There are Iraqi counter-terror units in training - photos of them, masked and wearing US-issue equipment show up on the militaryphotos "Today's pics" threads once in a while. Their pictures are gathered from news sources worldwide. I hope that this stuff they pass for news on the major networks goes the way of the DoDo bird. Checking multiple sources for verification is the standard way of conducting research, and with forums and blogs where you can get FIRST hand information, it is a much better way of getting your news.
mauser
