Text 15405, 64 rader
Skriven 2007-06-13 13:40:23 av Josh Hill (1818.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: unions
==================
On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:41:22 GMT, Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>In article <hvgb63hedb1j1boq1q4509rmjd5rn8bdfb@4ax.com>,
> Josh Hill <usereplyto@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:10:45 GMT, Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> >In article <W169i.24499$YL5.10306@newssvr29.news.prodigy.net>,
>> > "Vorlonagent" <nojtspam@otfresno.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> You are completely misundertanding Iran.  They think we don't have the 
>> >> guts 
>> >> to do what it takes to stop them.  That certainly was what Al-Queda took 
>> >> away from "Black Hawk Down".
>> 
>> >      And little from Iraq would dispell that idea.
>> 
>> Which makes Bush's mistake all the more shocking. He lived through the
>> Vientam years. He had Colin Powell, the author of the Powell Doctrine,
>> as his Secretary of State. But he turned one of the greatest
>> advantages of democracies -- the reluctance of their citizens to
>> become cannon fodder unless there's a damn good reason -- into a
>> liability. Now we're painted into a corner, and the best we can hope
>> to do is leave our footprints where the furniture is likely to sit.
>
>          You missed the point so valiantly (g). Little from Iraq 
>(outside of the intransigence of GWB himself) has dispelled the idea 
>from BHD that we are likely to turn tail and run when bloodied. Your 
>post did nothing to dispel that either.

Because we are!

My point is that, rather than repairing that impression, Bush
reinforced it. Everyone knows by now that one of a few conditions are
necessary if the American public is to continue backing a war: it has
to address a significant threat,  or it has to be small, or it has to
be successful. And just about everyone knows that the advantages of
our highly mechanized, advanced military are largely nullified when
we're fighting a limited war house-to-house in friendly territory, or
fighting insurgents or terrorists who blend into the local population.

We won the goddamn war. It was a cakewalk for us. But rather than
listening to the generals who told the truth, e.g., Shinseki, Bush
fired them and replaced them with generals who told him what he'd want
to hear. Rather than going in quickly and then handing things over, as
his father had, he dismantled the government and army, turned down the
/request/ of the UN to take over, delayed elections. And so forth.

If, at the moment of victory, we'd handed things over and gotten out,
we not only would have had every dictator in the world shaking in his
jackboots, we would have immediately put the lie to the people who
claimed we were trying to start an empire or steal Iraq's oil.
Instead, Bush painted a big fat target on our tail that said "Kick
here."

-- 
Josh

"Paranoia results from a proper perception
of the food chain." - Boots
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32
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