That is the word from USAF Gen. Richard Meyers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told reporters earlier this week that the Pentagon had completed a poll of Iraqis to gauge the mood toward insurgents. A DOD press article, citing “department officials speaking on background,” says the mid-July poll of 1,200 Iraqis in cities from Baghdad to Irbil revealed that 94 percent say there is no excuse for attacks on Iraqi police forces. Some 97 percent cannot excuse attacks on civilians.
After a long period in which munitions were almost an afterthought and sacrificed to pay for other priorities, the Air Force needs to focus on them in order to have the right “package” of capabilities for future conflicts, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said June 7.