Yeah.........that's kind of the way this BB works.

Good to see you ducking in again

I duck in when I feel like it.......I duck out when I feel like it.

It's been that way since I moved out of my parents' house.

If I feel the need for parental guidance when using this BB in the future, I'll drop you a line. Thanks for keeping an eye out........

Kind of sensitive today Dan?

Aunty M,

So true, so true. You're right.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I believe the War on Terror is the most important foreign policy initiative in the present and the forseeable future. My problem (thanks Grumpy for helping me see the truth) is that this Administration, after starting out well with Afghanistan has totally screwed up in Iraq. Here is an interesting link that crystallizes my thinking on the issue. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5279743/
In order to win the War on Terror, we must get rid of GW and his group of clowns.

This is the good part,...(he calls the U.S. war in Iraq a dream come true for Osama bin Laden, saying, “Bin Laden saw the invasion of Iraq as a Christmas gift he never thought he’d get.” )
Somehow the metaphor just doesn't fit.
The message is sound however.
While the invasion of Iraq was probably justified given the available intelligence. The prosecution of this war is a distraction from the accomplishment of the stated objective.
Our forces are overextended in their current capacity as "peace keepers, Democracy providers, civil engineers and police.
The Army is supposed to be an overwhelming bringer of death and destruction. Once again, the military is being misused so not to offend delicate political sensibilities.
Maybe we should withdraw and turn the entire stinking cesspool over to the Kurds to do with as they see fit.
The Iraqis will not be ready for a western style democracy as long as the Mullahs continue to rule the region with their particular brand of western hating monotheism. Furthermore, as long as the US is around to be a useful scapegoat on which to blame their shortcomings, there will always be Arab terrorists to kill. Sounds like a never-ending mission to me.
Instead of wasting our time trying to convince the Iraqis to set up the 51st state on their own, we should announce a plan to seal the borders with a 50 mile wide free fire zone, use the Kurds to root out the existing insurgents, pipe their oil to Texas and use the second largest oil reserve in the world (which we now own by right of conquest) to knock the Saudi's down a peg or two in the world market.
We are the only superpower in the world, it's time we got this job done and got back to what we do best, making stuff, and lots of it!!!
I’m Grumpy, and I wrote this message….

Its one view but a short sided view. Yes going into Iraq made it easier for Al Queda to claim that the US was embarking on a holy war agaist Islam as far as Islamic people are concerned. But they claimed that long ago based on our support of Isreal. Remember they where the ones that openly claimed a holy war against us infedels. It was a side effect that was welll discussed prior to the war. The risk was that Saddam would give weapons to these people. With more and more evidence coming out every day that this was about to happen or may even have happened already. Secondly you have to believe that their is a moderate Islamic majority for this theroy to have weight. I do not think there is a such a thing. I think there is an moderate islamic minority and that they have been westernized. This westernized minority is in full reatreat in the Islamic world and has been for some time. They have the money and got it form the west so they are seen as infifels that help the great Satan and have been targeted. So I would say that the authors conculsions have some weight but over extend conclusions. Take the battle to them make it happen sooner rather than later. Learn from what has happened in Isreal. You can live in fear for many years because you have to pussy foot around with these aholes just because a few people want to give them the first shot.

TK - I for one do believe that there is a reasonable Islamic majority. If there isn't, then I ask once again, what the he!! are we doing in Iraq??? We are about to turn over "sovereignty" to the new Iraqi Govt. Do these people represent a minority? I sincerely hope not or all of our expense in both money and lives will be for naught. I put sovereignty in quotes because after reading this story this morning, I wonder just what kind of sovereignty they will have.

http://www.tribnet.com/24hour/front/story/1454678p-8842155c.html

One of the interesting things about this is how the Ayatollah Khomeni used a similar agreement between the Shah and the US as a key component in his Islamic revolution in 1979.

Eddie,

"I ask once again, what the he!! are we doing in Iraq???" You have to try all options unless you are willing to just attempt to take over the Islamic world. The immunitiy issue is a tough one. We are going to have to try some things that we have not done before to get the upper hand on this monster they unleashed. It will take the typical years and years of deabate in the global arena to come to no conclusion. We cannot have our team swinging in the breeze in the mean time. One thing is clear that the great goodwill Al GORE and his cronies rail about never exisited. If anyone thinks that before 9911 or after that the certain countries where or would look out for our benefit they need to return to reality. They can show no evidence of such in the form of action.