Re: And you add ANOTHER layer of excuses.
Excuses for what? "The War on Terror" was not a war. It was hunting down individuals across national boundaries, involving the police of different countries as much as our military. The objective, as you seem to have missed, was not to take over the Afghanistan people. It is an ongoing police action against international criminals.\r\n\r\n
Right now, it looks like a war. Or is Iraq not a war on terror? If it's not, what is it exactly?
\r\n\r\nWhat happened in Afghanistan, if not a war? We had units in Afghanistan, and it sure looked like they were in a war from what we heard about what was happening to them, and from what they told us when they came back. In fact, a goal in Afghanistan was regime change; getting rid of the Taliban. That was a stated goal of the coalition that went in there. Regime change, and a military campaign... what is it if it's not war? Or are you going to start leaning on legalistic splitting of hairs about what is and is not a war?
\r\n\r\nAlso, Bush had the opportunity to make bin Laden and al-Qaida into criminals in how he reacted to 9/11, but he blew it, and turned them into warriors and martyrs instead. They should have treated this as a criminal issue, not a war issue. It would have promoted clearer thinking and better decision making if they had. However, it very nicely dovetailed into their existing views on how the US should position itself in the global community, so they used it.
\r\n\r\nYou are so hung up on your predictions, you'll never accept anything that contradicts what you predicted. That's fine, go on living in your own little world.\r\n\r\n
Those grapes were sour anyway. If you want to shut him up, find something that contradicts his prediction. The problem is you can't, yet.
\r\n\r\nCybermace, you're the one that looks like you're living in a dreamworld to me. Watch... even after Saddam falls, western soldiers will continue getting killed in Iraq. Do you think that the Iraqi are going to start dancing in the streets when Saddam falls? What's your prediction about what will happen when Saddam falls?
\r\n\r\nNow, as Brandioch likes to harp on about prediction, my prediction is that the people in the south of Iraq (Shia) wait for you to kill the regime (Hussein and his top people) in Baghdad, and then turn on the allied forces.
\r\n\r\nSay, Cybermace, did you see the picture of the little girl being pulled out of the rubble in Basra? Did you see what was hanging out the bottom of her right pant leg? It was her foot. Go take a look at that picture, and perhaps you'll appreciate why the help perhaps is not being that well appreciated. She's going to lose her foot at minimum, and probably most of her lower leg.
\r\n\r\nHave you considered the possibility that your government and media are lying to you? Or perhaps are trying to deceive you? Your journalists hopped on board to become "embedded" in your armed forces... ours didn't. Perhaps you should try getting some of your war information from other parts of the world. I have the rare good fortune to live with a Russian and a Chinese guy, and they've been filling me in on what their media have been saying about what's happening over there. So far, they're being quite accurate, and tend to be breaking stories a LOT sooner than they are being broken by US or even Canadian media. Example: the Chinese broke the story of POWs around 20 hours before al-Jazeera even did, and the NA media didn't break anything until after al-Jazeera. Do you think that if perhaps al-Jazeera hadn't broken that story, perhaps no one would've known at all? After all, they were only replaying what they taped off the Iraqi television stations. Why aren't CNN watching Iraqi media and telling you about what they're saying on it right away?
