[quote=dude]

dude wrote:
 What I lack in experience, I make up for in my advisors.

Let me guess, the black helicopter guys, right?

Reply:

I guess my suspicion concerning your reading comprehension has just been supported. 

Did you read the part about the Special Forces professor who served in Vietnam? 

[/quote]

I've known dozens, what's your point? You're not going to tell me he's your only advisor and that your vast interest in the conspiracy world doesn't count.

[quote=dude]

I think everyone here is missing the point....Bush is full of hot air and is densely obstinant.  He has been trumpeting that we are 'winning' in Iraq, when that is not the truth.

I don't recall Bush saying that we are 'winning' the war.  In fact it seems that he has stressed since day one that it would be a long battle and that the war was not just centered in Iraq.  "This war will be difficult, this war will be long, and this war will end in the defeat of the terrorists and totalitarians and a victory for the cause of freedom and liberty." And don't give me that "mission accomplished' BS either.  Tommy Franks, not Bush, that made the banner and he didn't meant mission accomplished as if the struggle was over.  They meant that they had accomplished the mission of removing Sadaam.   The MSM and Democrats always want to spin to the lowest common denominator.  No one in their right mind thought that we were done and could just waltz on home and smell the roses.

My point is that there should be no war in Iraq.  The real front for the war on terror should be Afghanistan.  Iraq is a DISTRACTION from the war on terror.

Really? Says you. Ok then... lets just bomb the ever loving crap out of Afganistan.  Then what?  The problem with you and people like you is that it is a black and white world...either/or.   I'm sorry to inform you, the war on terror is everywhere. The terrorists are operating all over the world and not in some designated spot.  They are operating without uniforms, and without one nation backing them like in previous wars where we could identify the enemy.  This is why trying to apply the Geneva Conventions (an antique set of rules) to a modern, underground, mobile and invisible army is impossible.  The same reason that we can't treat the terrorists as if they were petty criminals with habeus corpus.  This is a struggle of civilizations and not like any war we have ever had before. 

Some here are boxing me into a corner where I don't belong.  If there is just cause for a war (like the 'real' war on terror) then I am behind it all the way.  I don't think distractions contribute to winning a war.

Really again?  How do you feel about profiling people like the "flying Imams" and refusing to allow them access to public transportation until they can prove that they pose no threat?   How about disbanding the Muslim schools in New York City that are teaching nothing but the Koran and hatred, creating the next generation of terrorists right in the US.  

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/71199p-66134c.ht ml

Maybe you would approve of barring Muslim clerics in our prison systems who are recruiting career criminals to become part of the war on terror and fueling their arlready considerable violence and hatred? Are you behind a system that would track immigrants to the US and immediately deport those that are here illegally or who have outstayed their visas?  How about screening and eliminating visas and immigrants from countries that have harbored known terrorists.  How about, for God's sake, securing our own borders and knowing who is coming into the country?  Why not have a National Identity Card that is standardized from State to State so employers can know who they are dealing with.   Should we not intercept communications from spies and traitors who are planning to do harm to the population and be allowed to act with expediency to stop them, instead of spending months in the court system.  No????  thought not.

I think Americans are obsessed with war....war on poverty, drugs etc...etc...

It's the dominant paradigm (especially of those who have served, understandably) that war is the solution. 

When war is hammered into the heads of a people, it's no wonder their only hammer is war. 

I agree the War on Terror, War on Drugs, War on Transfat etc soon become meaningless mantras.  But, when people are trying to kill us and do us harm, if we don't fight back we might as well just commit sepiku right now.  Personally, I'm not much of a pacifist and don't feel like suicide in this lifetime.  If you want to be a pacifist.....fine.   Just don't get in my way when I try to protect myself and my family.

[/quote]

[quote=dude]

[quote=joedabrkr]Hear Hear Babs…I’m with you all the way!!! [/quote]

Fine Joe...you go fight the war.  I'll stay at home smiling in my garden thankful that I'm not risking my life in vain.

[/quote]

Just curious dude...where were you on 9/11? I mean exactly how far from Ground Zero.

How many people did you know who died?  How many of them were close friends?

How many hours did you sleep worrying about the safety of your family, or thinking about how you would get away from the center of the city if there was another attack?

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016122.php

What Gates really said in writing to the Armed Services Committee......not what you wish he had said.

[quote=babbling looney]

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016122.php

What Gates really said in writing to the Armed Services Committee......not what you wish he had said.

[/quote]

Yeah, that's a fair and balanced source.  Hah!

[quote=joedabrkr] [quote=dude]

[quote=joedabrkr]Hear Hear Babs....I'm with you all the way!!!! [/quote]

Fine Joe...you go fight the war.  I'll stay at home smiling in my garden thankful that I'm not risking my life in vain.

[/quote]

Just curious dude...where were you on 9/11? I mean exactly how far from Ground Zero.

How many people did you know who died?  How many of them were close friends?

How many hours did you sleep worrying about the safety of your family, or thinking about how you would get away from the center of the city if there was another attack?
[/quote]

Oh, Ok and that's good logic to go and bomb Iraq?  You're a lemming sprewing predictable excuses for an action which is clearly being exposed as a failure and diversion from the true cause of 911 in Afghanistan/Pakistan.  His name is Osama Bin Laden not Saddam Hussein.  I find the logic to invade Iraq and how it was executed as complete horse sh*t. 

If you were really concerned about those people who died, you'd want our resources to be focused on getting the culprit right?

I mean if someone killed a family member would you try to go after one of his inlaws who didn't have much relation to the killer?  Would you focus exponentially more financial resource and energy on persuing someone who had nothing to do with the murder?

I would focus all my energy on getting the culprit.  That, to me is truly caring about those poor souls on 911.  If you don't understand that logic Joe, you are a brainwashed lemming bro.

[quote=dude][quote=babbling looney]

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016122.php

What Gates really said in writing to the Armed Services Committee......not what you wish he had said.

[/quote]

Yeah, that's a fair and balanced source.  Hah!

[/quote]

What? You don't think the written statement by Gates to the Armed Services Committee iin the Senate in response to their advance questions prior to his appearance before them, is not fair and balanced?  Prey tell, what would be more accurate than the words from the horse's mouth....so to speak.

The truth is that we handed the responsiblity for Afghanistan over to NATO....what a f*cking joke! 

Iraq is taking resource away from finding the killer.  Quit being stupid, we aren't going to make any friends by de-stabalizing the region (which is exactly what a war in Iraq is doing and was known in advance that there was a high risk of a sectarian civil war).

Now we are going to have to negotiate with Syria and Iran to transition out of the area (based on the Iraq study group findings).

We should have never been sidetracked if we wanted to catch the killer.

[quote=babbling looney][quote=dude][quote=babbling looney]

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016122.php

What Gates really said in writing to the Armed Services Committee......not what you wish he had said.

[/quote]

Yeah, that's a fair and balanced source.  Hah!

[/quote]

What? You don't think the written statement by Gates to the Armed Services Committee iin the Senate in response to their advance questions prior to his appearance before them, is not fair and balanced?  Prey tell, what would be more accurate than the words from the horse's mouth....so to speak.

[/quote]

I'm not commenting on his words which are valid and I thank you for the link.  It was the commentary of the source that I found amusing.  That's all.  Sorry for any confusion.

If you were really concerned about those people who died, you'd want our resources to be focused on getting the culprit right?

You do realize that there is more than "one" culprit and that it is an amorphous group of people comprising people from all nations across the world, including the USA?

This fixation that if we only got this one guy, then everything will be roses and butterflies again is ridiculous.   Trying to catch these guys is like squeezing a rubber glove full of jello.  Squish one place the the jello expands into another.  We need to concentrate on the whole glove, not just the middle finger.

[quote=dude]

The truth is that we handed the responsiblity for Afghanistan over to NATO....what a f*cking joke!  [/quote]

When we go it "alone" (of course the other countries with us in Iraq would disagree) we're wrong, when we go with allies (as in Afghanistan from the beginning) we're wrong.

At least we know what we always are....

[quote=dude] You're a lemming sprewing predictable excuses....[/quote]

What was that about "over-reacting" again? That's the end of this thread for me, gang...

[quote=mikebutler222][quote=dude]

The truth is that we handed the responsiblity for Afghanistan over to NATO....what a f*cking joke!  [/quote]

When we go it "alone" (of course the other countries with us in Iraq would disagree) we're wrong, when we go with allies (as in Afghanistan from the beginning) we're wrong.

At least we know what we always are....

[/quote]

As usual I don't understand a word you're saying since it doesn't apply to my perceptions. 

[quote=mikebutler222]

[quote=dude] You're a lemming sprewing predictable excuses....[/quote]

What was that about "over-reacting" again? That's the end of this thread for me, gang...

[/quote]

Peace be with you.