[PatM]

Read your post on Iwo but believe that no amount of shelling or aerial bombardment could have made it easier for the Marines-the Japanese were just too well dug in-so it was up to the men on the sharp end using the "blowtorch and corkscrew" method to get the job done. Gen Kuribayashi did his very best in what was for him a no-win situation. He made us pay for every yard of that God awful place. Anyone out there ever read T. R. Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War"? It deals with Korea but it also applies to WW2 and every other war since then. He said you can fly over the enemy's country, bomb it-even atomize it, stripping it clean of life, but to truly control it, you must do what has been done since the days of Caesar and his legions--you must put your young men in the mud.