Good Evening

I'm taking the contrarian position on the too-briefly considered Pentagon weapons research to "create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and them more interested in sex" than warfare. It sounds like a splendid weapon. Under different circumstances, not infrequently achieved in San Francisco, such a "weapon" would popularly be considered a polite party favor.

Unfortunately, I think, the sexual orientation to be impacted scandalized us too much. I suppose the ideal ammunition would be orientation neutral, liberalizing sexuality more generally. Sullivan shows that there's latent, local demand among citizens of predominantly Islamic states. A soft power angle in the Long War? I should say so. And what of collateral damage -- perhaps only to ancient mores.

Such a weapon would impart lighter logistical burdens on us. The current best guess in this conflict, the military occupation of Iraq, has produced a scenario where it's hard to know what to do, and hard to do anything at all. The sunk costs are significant; the vested interests developed; the inert mass very, very heavy.

Watching them drive by at 30 miles per hour, would take 75 days. Bumper-to-bumper, they would stretch from New York City to Denver. That's how U.S. Air Force logistical expert Lenny Richoux described the number of vehicles that would have to be shipped back from Iraq when the current deployment is over. These include, among others, 10,000 flatbed trucks, 1,000 tanks and 20,000 Humvees.Even in an emergency, said Col. Richoux in DefenseNews, the evacuation of 162,000 troops in 23 ground combat brigades and millions of tons of equipment would take some 20 months. Military shipping containers, end to end, would stretch from New York City to the gates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The main resupply route for convoys that runs 344 miles from Kuwait (skirts Basra to the north) to Baghdad is already under the constant threat of hit-and-run insurgency attacks, including improvised explosive devices. Driving empty, on their way back to pick up another load in Kuwait, convoys are just as vulnerable.