Macabre sense of humor

Got this off MSN (part of a good piece on Chechens attacking from sewers
and
using tunnels and sewage piping to flank Russian formations in the
city):

GENERAL'S FATE DISPUTED 
The Russian general reportedly missing was deputy commander of the army
that
has spearheaded the offensive against Chechnya. Russian officials said
he
was killed or captured this week while visiting a part of the Chechen
capital of Grozny that the Russians claim is under their control. 

Malofeyev, a commander of the North Caucasus army, is the highest
ranking
officer to become a casualty in Russia's five-month-old war to pacify
the
breakaway region. The Chechens announced they had captured him, while
Russian officials said he has been missing for two or three days and was
either wounded or killed during fierce fighting in Grozny. 

Russian television reports said Malofeyev was visiting soldiers and
urging
them to stand up and fight instead of lying down to hide from snipers.
The
reports, which could not be confirmed, said the general was shot in the
back
and head while delivering the lecture. 

** Why can I just picture this... soldiers who know the battlefront and
the
sniper dangers hunkered down to not give the snipers a target. The
general,
a REMF, wandering about lecturing them and exhorting them to stand up
and
fight (like fighting snipers was something easily accomplished and like
standing up was the solution to engaging snipers). P-crack! Scratch one
general. The *joys* of urban warfare against a motivated, entrenched
enemy
defending their homeland.... SG2 Mission Motivation High for sure. And I
suspect the Russian troops, being of the same variety as lost this
conflict
last time, are probably Low Motivation. 

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008