Washington Makes Silly Plans, Marines Use Silly String

What Marines Need

right now. Not in a few months, but right now. Is Silly String. From this morning's San Diego Union. . .

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton wanted "Silly String" – lots of it – while it is in Iraq.
Mark McLain, the General Services Administration's customer service director in San Diego, asked some skeptical questions in his e-mails to the troops overseas. They persuaded him: he took the order and got the goods for the Marines – at a party store.

The request for Silly String, the foamy stuff in aerosol cans that becomes string when sprayed all over, seemed more fitting for a playground than a war zone. Yet, once McLain got the gist of the Marines' plan, he was convinced.

Marines told McLain they wanted to spray Silly String around unexploded ordnance to check for trip wires, or warning systems. If any of the Silly String got caught on wires, they believed, it would indicate the wires were booby traps.

"They need it, and I get it," McLain, 45, said. "The Marines are pretty inventive."

So, I'm sitting here at the computer at Mom's house, MSNBC is waxing all fucking poetic about the "Message From the Mountain" delivered by Baker/Hamilton.

Here are guys who are wearing boots on the ground. This is something they need. If you are putting together care packages or other things for the troops. Hit the party store. Clean out their Silly String. Send your soldier or Marine a case. They need it most in Al-Anbar and Kirkuk and the other places that are fighting house-to-house.

Oh, and how about this? Instead of asking Jim Baker, Gates and the rest of these statesman/philosophers what we need in Iraq. How about asking the kids that are right there, right now? They'll tell you "Silly String."

Hoo-rah. Carry on.


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