On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 08:08:13 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote:

Dave Hall wrote:
it's just that
they stand firm in their resolve. They make the hard decisions rather
than engaging in endless debates from infinite angles.

Even when their assumptions are wrong and events prove their thinking is
leading to one disaster after another.

No one has yet to prove that those decisions were wrong (your biased
and ill-informed opinions do not count), or that these decisions have
been a "disaster". We've lost more lives in one campaign in WWII than
we have in the whole Iraq war to date. Yet by the logic of some of you
guys on the left, we probably should have abandoned our effort in WWII
as well.

No one (At least no one with an ounce of realism) claimed going into
this war on terrorism, that it would be easy. Our enemy is hard to
identify, and hides behind the protection of many contributors. Should
this mean that we should do nothing? Or should we try to "reason" with
people who have openly stated that their goal is to drive western
culture from their lands, and ultimately from the face of the earth?
What bargaining chip could we hold for them? What concessions could we
offer? What other course of action would be preferable to the one
which our leader has selected?

Did you even think that we might need to establish a base of operation
so that we can carry on the next phase of this campaign? There are a
lot of smoking guns in Saudi Arabia, and in Iran. If we were to
seriously pursue this, we would jeopardize our oil imports as well as
present a logistical problem. Having Iraq for both substitute oil and
as a point of deployment makes strategic and tactical sense.

What you call "Bush's stupidity" may very well be a cleverly organized
and well thought out effort. 20 years from now, and we'll look back a
bit differently than we are now.

Rigid personality disorder, eh?

No, it's called doing what's right, even if it makes some people
uncomfortable in the short term. If we don't fight the battle now, our
children will have to, and the odds will be less in our favor.


Dave