alright, first off, i was in Iraq during opperation Iraqi freedom. i am a 14E{PATRIOT enhanced opperator/ maintainer} stationed in Ft. Bliss TX with the 108th ADA BDE. So I beleive I have a little bit more knowlege about this subject than most. And what I beleive is that PATRIOT did it's job and more. Of course there were some screw ups {they were all over the t.v.} but, what you didnt hear about were the succeses. While in Iraq and Kuwait, PATRIOT units were forced to do things that it was not made to do.For instance, the first night of the war we{B- BTRY} were told to move forward in an ammount of time we have never move before.We were succesful at moving or ''jumping'' as we call it in a record shattering time. Then of course was the sand. if you have never experienced sand like this, it is the consistancy of baby powder. the mixture of sand and wind caused our equipment to malfunction more than we would like to addmit. there were other problems that i just cant talkabout but, PATRIOT performed better than our commanders could have ever asked and more than you will ever know. in the long run, if we save one base from one SCUD, I feel it is worth it. Just ask a marine with the 1st MEF if they were glad to have us