Terry, The mistake we are making is thinking that this is a winnable war. The terrorists and extremists have the upper hand in that they have no regard for humanity or decency. The U.S. of course and all who believe in our form of gov't. cannot operate in this heathen fashion. What perplexes and frightens me is the lack of continuous, constant and loud outrage over the killings and bombings and slaughter of innocents in Iraq by the supposed "normal" Islamists in the world. Where is the Arab voice of reason? Instead I read about a poor soul in Afghanistan who faces the death penalty for "rejecting" Islam and adopting Christianity. How F@@@@d up is that????
:?: If the war is not winnable, then what is the alternative? We can't "go home" the war began here. Wherever we go, the war will follow and it is a war to the death. Either we convert to Islam or we will be killed. Peace is not an option...
What I mean Jo'Co is that if we turn this into a war against Islam or if it comes to be percieved that way by Islam then the war in Iraq is not winnable. I think that the extremists are doing their damndest to create just such a scenario and probably will never stop. If we were to invade Iran it would have tremendously negative consequences in this vein of thought. I think we need to focus solely on extremists groups like Al-Queda and try to extract ourselves from the role of converting Islamist states over to Democracy or building nations in Iraq, etc. I don't think we had enough analysis and sound forecasts of what would happen in Iraq should we invade. The risk of turning Iraq into some sort of religious war seems high at this point and if it gets down to creating that development if we stay then we should get the hell out of there as soon as possible.
I still don't understand where it is we're supposed to go if we're not there. If we try to separate Al Qaida or other terrorist groups from the nations that support them, then we are truly on a fool's errand. What was the difference between the Viet Cong and the communist government of North Vietnam? There wasn't any. What was the difference between the PLO and Black September? There wasn't any. What's the difference between Hamas and the government of Iran? There isn't any. Even the insects have to return to a nest sometimes and attacking the nests is the only way to reduce the number of pests to a manageable number. ..................IMHO...JO'Co
MCG, in so doing, you're ignoring the fundamental source of the Islamic radicals....the masses of oppressed Arabs with no voice in the political process other than to strap a bomb on their chest and blow up innocent women and children...they are the seed corn for Al-Qaeda and their blood brothers of Islamic terrorsts and their twisted sick views. I firmly believe in the Bush vision that the spread of democracy provides this generation of Arab youth a much more productive voice in the political process. That represents this countrys most potent long-term weapon against world terror organizations. This country has nurtured the spread of democracy since its inception...are you advocating that we stop now because there are irrational elements that somehow object to self-determination? War is not fun, but it is sometimes necessary.....Let us not forget. We did not declare war on Islam. The Islamic terrorists have declared war on us. We must prevail....as JO'Co asks, what are the alternatives but victory? Terry
In pre-WW2 Germany there was one dominant fiend who controlled the masses and when he was defeated in the war so were the masses. Turns out they didn't really harbor his views all that strongly anyway. In the Arab Islamic world, religion and Allah are the controlling powers of the Arab universe and not just one insane human. Turns out that the religion when taken at it's extreme by so many is as twisted and cruel and subhuman as the one sick ruler of WW2 Germany was. It's going to be a lot harder to cut off the head of the monster of extreme Islam than it was in WW2 Germany.
Guess it will be interesting to see how the judgement of that poor guy who converted to Christianity comes out.
whobedis, <t>There's no guessing how the final judgement will turn out for that poor guy. He was poor, he is no more. His riches are countless.</t>
UT Tom, <t>I'm not going to argue with you about my stance on this war. I will only say this. You say I remind you of those who acted out at Kent State, I say whatever. I will say this, My Uncle fought in Kuchhi Vietnam, He says we we're wrong then just like I say we're wrong now. He said everything Kerry said about that war was the truth. Anyway, It's our duties not to allow our leaders lead us down the wrong path. Anyone with half a brain could see where this was headed before it started, except for George W Bush and all his blind followers. I guess he comes up short of that half a brain requirement? His followers have too much pride to back down now.</t>