HOW MANY WEEKS IN A MONTH?

HOW MANY WEEKS IN A MONTH? The Washington Times reports that the Administration still insists it will keep to its pledge to disarm Iraq in “weeks not months” that it made five weeks ago.

Yesterday, White House officials shrugged off the fact that the Pentagon’s military planners considered Feb. 21 to 28 the ideal week to commence hostilities against Iraq. That would have saved U.S. soldiers from sweltering in jumpsuits designed to protect against biological weapons.

“Think of the absurdity of today, in the 21st century, saying that the American military cannot fight in the heat,” one Bush aide said. “Go back to the first Bull Run, when it was 100 degrees and people were wearing wool.

“The American military can fight in any conditions,” the aide added.

“What are the perfect conditions? Well, that’s for a bunch of military eggheads to sit and kick around. It’s not really what the president does for a living.”

True enough. My guess is that the delay has much less to do with the goings-on in the Security Council than the desire to get all the necessary forces in place on the ground. Our inability to transport forces more rapidly has been a shortcoming in our defense infrastructure since time immemorial.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is a Professor of Security Studies. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.