[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
We were all old friends, who understood that we could debate, argue, or scream at the top of our lungs
without changing the basic respect we all held for each other. As general, moderator, and judge of the
last court of appeals, my job was to sit back and wait for the truth to eventually emerge. If I took sides
too early, I might suppress some of the ideas that would otherwise come out.
"So just what do you know about the politics of New Croatia, Kasia?" Colonel Buich said.
Maria often sided with Conan in the Saturday morning debates, not so much because she lived with the
guy but because they thought so much alike. Conan wouldn't talk about why he hated the Serbs so much,
but hate them he thoroughly did.
In Maria's case, she had been captured by the Serbs while she had been teaching an eighth grade girls'
gymnastic class. The Serbs did not rape Maria, but they'd done some very ugly things to the young girls
in her care.
"None of us here know what the politicians are doing. We've been out of touch with our country's forces
for months," Maria continued. "And they don't even know we exist! So don't you dare talk about
`political ends.' Our job, which all of us Croatians here volunteered for, is to kill as many of those damn
Serbians as we possibly can before the war ends."
"A nice bit of Freudian slip you have showing there, Maria dear! You see the war as an excuse to kill
Serbians, rather than the killing of Serbians being necessary as a way to end the war!" Kasia said.
That momentarily shut Maria up, but Colonel Lloyd Tomlinson came quickly to her aid.
"You know our history as well as anybody, Kasia. Any Serbians who live through this war will just live
to be killed or killing in the next one! Better to get the job done now!"
Colonel Mirko Jubec stood and waited for everyone to pay attention to him. They quieted down quickly
because he didn't speak often, but what he said when he did talk was always worth hearing.
"If we go in with all guns blazing, we will kill most of the civilians in the concentration camp. Do wewant
to do that? Can weafford to do that?"
Then Mirko sat down, and a few moments went by before Kasia stood up.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"An excellent point, Mirko. Also, we don't really know how badly off our own side is, but we know that
they are not actively attacking the Serbs just now. I am fairly certain that they would not turn their noses
up at two more armored divisions besides our own, especially if they were cost free. I think we can steal
those divisions for them! I think that we can rescue the people in the concentration camp and turn many
of them into soldiers. As to the Serbian infantry, once their armor is gone and their communications are in
our hands, capturing them shouldn't be too difficult."
"I'm worried about the civilians too, Kasia. But if we try to be too clever about all this, we could end up
losing the civilians, losing the battle, and losing our own lives as well," Maria said. "We are fighting a war,
and we can't let ourselves get too squeamish."
I sat back and waited for some sort of consensus to evolve.
It didn't.
After the debate had gone on for more than three hours, it settled in pretty much as I had suspected.
Kasia and Mirko favored a limited attack that would destroy the enemy computer and general staff, but
capture everything else. Lloyd, Conan, and Maria wanted to destroy everything and kill everybody who
wrote home in Cyrillic, while trying to miss the civilians as much as possible.
When they started to repeat themselves, I told each group to take a three-hour break and to come back
with some solid battle plans.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
BATTLE PLANS
On the wall screens around us, slowly, smoothly, our forces were taking up combat convoy positions.
The slowness was only apparent because our army was moving in the real world and had to move in real
time. We were at Combat Speed, fifty times faster.
Back in history, it often took weeks, even months, for an army to go from a training situation to full
combat readiness. With our personnel and machines, we were able to start moving in seconds. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
We were all old friends, who understood that we could debate, argue, or scream at the top of our lungs
without changing the basic respect we all held for each other. As general, moderator, and judge of the
last court of appeals, my job was to sit back and wait for the truth to eventually emerge. If I took sides
too early, I might suppress some of the ideas that would otherwise come out.
"So just what do you know about the politics of New Croatia, Kasia?" Colonel Buich said.
Maria often sided with Conan in the Saturday morning debates, not so much because she lived with the
guy but because they thought so much alike. Conan wouldn't talk about why he hated the Serbs so much,
but hate them he thoroughly did.
In Maria's case, she had been captured by the Serbs while she had been teaching an eighth grade girls'
gymnastic class. The Serbs did not rape Maria, but they'd done some very ugly things to the young girls
in her care.
"None of us here know what the politicians are doing. We've been out of touch with our country's forces
for months," Maria continued. "And they don't even know we exist! So don't you dare talk about
`political ends.' Our job, which all of us Croatians here volunteered for, is to kill as many of those damn
Serbians as we possibly can before the war ends."
"A nice bit of Freudian slip you have showing there, Maria dear! You see the war as an excuse to kill
Serbians, rather than the killing of Serbians being necessary as a way to end the war!" Kasia said.
That momentarily shut Maria up, but Colonel Lloyd Tomlinson came quickly to her aid.
"You know our history as well as anybody, Kasia. Any Serbians who live through this war will just live
to be killed or killing in the next one! Better to get the job done now!"
Colonel Mirko Jubec stood and waited for everyone to pay attention to him. They quieted down quickly
because he didn't speak often, but what he said when he did talk was always worth hearing.
"If we go in with all guns blazing, we will kill most of the civilians in the concentration camp. Do wewant
to do that? Can weafford to do that?"
Then Mirko sat down, and a few moments went by before Kasia stood up.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"An excellent point, Mirko. Also, we don't really know how badly off our own side is, but we know that
they are not actively attacking the Serbs just now. I am fairly certain that they would not turn their noses
up at two more armored divisions besides our own, especially if they were cost free. I think we can steal
those divisions for them! I think that we can rescue the people in the concentration camp and turn many
of them into soldiers. As to the Serbian infantry, once their armor is gone and their communications are in
our hands, capturing them shouldn't be too difficult."
"I'm worried about the civilians too, Kasia. But if we try to be too clever about all this, we could end up
losing the civilians, losing the battle, and losing our own lives as well," Maria said. "We are fighting a war,
and we can't let ourselves get too squeamish."
I sat back and waited for some sort of consensus to evolve.
It didn't.
After the debate had gone on for more than three hours, it settled in pretty much as I had suspected.
Kasia and Mirko favored a limited attack that would destroy the enemy computer and general staff, but
capture everything else. Lloyd, Conan, and Maria wanted to destroy everything and kill everybody who
wrote home in Cyrillic, while trying to miss the civilians as much as possible.
When they started to repeat themselves, I told each group to take a three-hour break and to come back
with some solid battle plans.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
BATTLE PLANS
On the wall screens around us, slowly, smoothly, our forces were taking up combat convoy positions.
The slowness was only apparent because our army was moving in the real world and had to move in real
time. We were at Combat Speed, fifty times faster.
Back in history, it often took weeks, even months, for an army to go from a training situation to full
combat readiness. With our personnel and machines, we were able to start moving in seconds. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]