It's ok, just being a woman I guess. (maybe that is unpolitical?)
I agree that it would be shame to let women be enslaved to Islam if they did not wish to be. However, we have no way of knowing if they wish to be or not.
I guess not everybody is looking forward to the armageddon of Iraq.
timberlandko wrote:I submit the point precisely is that it is the prime interest of National Security to assure the fight does not come to US soil. I submit those who deny the jihadists are at self-declared war with Western Civilization misapprehend the reality. I submit that the jihadists are by no means a majority within the Islamic World. I submit that defeating the thugs on their own soil is the surest, in fact sole, means of preventing them from taking the fight beyond their region. I submit that defeating the thugs is the sole means by which The Islamic World may be freed of their pernicious, insidious influence.
I submit that as long as our tactics are as destructive to the general population as to the jihadists, we are headed to failure.
I submit that the same people that had not a clue what to expect after the fall of Sadam are still calling the shots and blowing it again. Their incompetence and disregard of the advice of their generals was pointed out in
this post which none of you even commented on.
Timber, you were around for Viet Nam, so I am really surprised that you cannot see us slipping into the same old groove of if we can just kill enough of them we will win.
revel wrote:I agree that it would be shame to let women be enslaved to Islam if they did not wish to be. However, we have no way of knowing if they wish to be or not.
You don't know if there is a significant number of woman who don't wish to be enslaved?

Revel... yes you do. Iraqis are no different than you or I. And if they didn't object to enslavement, because it was so indoctrinated in their way of thinking, would that be less sad?
Consider this:
20% of the citizens of Iraq are
girls, 14 years old or younger. Are those
FIVE MILLION LITTLE GIRLS worth fighting for? Do they deserve a better lot in life than the essential enslavement that the Islamic Extremists have in mind for them? Does it matter if their parents have been brainwashed into accepting the injustice?
revel wrote:I guess not everybody is looking forward to the armageddon of Iraq.
No sane person is looking forward to the Armageddon of Iraq.
No sane person looked forward to the American Civil War, either. But it was work that needed to be done.
mesquite, I just don't accept the premis you put forth.
First, our tactics are hardly as destructive to the general population as to the jihadists. The notion itself is absurd, betraying an utter lack of, or at least total disregard for, factual information regarding the situation.
Second, I did not ignore the article re Shinseki's position, I simply do not accept Shinseki's argument, and neither did the war planning staff. He had a position, an opinion, yes. His input was but one one among a number of positions, period. It was a dissenting position, a minority position, and it was not adopted. That it exists makes it neither right nor wrong, no matter how one personally may feel about it. That's it, that's that, and that's all.
Third, those who think the "kill enough of them" meme is anything other than denonstrably baseless seem to me to be ignorant not only of the nature of armed conflict in general but of the operant situation in specific.
Mesquite, I had typed up a response to that section of your post and then chose not to submit it... because it is too subjective to argue. Sun Tzu pointed out a very long time ago that your war plan becomes useless when the first shot is fired. Of course, there were mistakes made. Of course, there will be more mistakes made. That has no bearing on the rightfulness or lack thereof of the effort itself.
revel wrote:I guess not everybody is looking forward to the armageddon of Iraq.
I am! I am! Oh, that is going to be SO wonderful...the clouds sundering...the resolute shout of trumpets...the blessed blessed fire raining down and scalding off the naked skin of everyone I don't agree with...how happy happy happy I shall be!
What's life without hope, eh, blatham?
Yes! And especially when so many others can't have any except delusionally, try as they might. I just love theology!
I am considering a series of books, which I'm optimistic will sell like heck because I'm taking two hot publishing ideas and putting them together. I'm excited about this.
The pretrib rapture Left-Behind books now are big...I mean BIG...everyone is snapping them up from Walmart. And then look at all the print that's been sold on the 2000 election and how everything was just snatched away from democrats.
And so I'm thinking a series where folks get lifted up from planes and subways and truckstops and whatever motel that evangelist with the big hair is in and then there is a recount and they have to go back!
I'm going to call them the "Left Behind?...Whoa!...We Got Company!"
Blatham contemplating hope at the feet of Timberland:
Wow! Timber looks just like that guy that can draw a dishtowel in through his nostril, then down through the sinuses to the throat and further down through the stomach where he squooshes it all around and then pulls it back out and feels really good.
Wow! He must have some shiny dishes.
Very cool...fireworks in Stanley Park
his tea comes all the way from China but he gets his rice in Minnesota, the shinola comes from Texas.
I recognize that line! That's Cohen Keillor Hammer!
know to his friends as Nick Danger, third eye.
I think we're all bozos on this bus. But nervermind; how can you be two places at once when you're not anywhere at all? Now, don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers. Right now, I'm waiting for the electrician, or someone like him. You may have seen me hanging around the drugstore drinking chocolate malted falcons and giving away free high schools. Things just ain't been the same since The Pink Hotel burned down.
If you need me, a little later, Babe and I'll be down at Spoilsport Motors, talkin' to old Ralph himself.
Okay then.
Forward, into the past.
Could I get a hit off that bong, anyone?
Nunya's better be leaving the house...