Mrs. Wildweasel,
As a retired professional Army officer and one who still works in the intelligence community, I don't just rely on the mainstream media. I rely on sources within the defense,intelligence and law enforcement communities who operate a little higher up than the grunt level. The war as it is being fought at the tactical level is much different than the one that is being fought at the strategic level.
Perhaps because I do have almost daily interface on the official level with those who are involved in the International War on Terror, I don't have the faith and confidence in the National Command Authority that you seem to have. The upper levels of leadership are rife with strap-hanging snychopants, incompetents, and persons who are only out for number 1: themselves.
We lack the ability to even successfully protect our own borders. If you think the FEMA mess in New Orleans was a disaster, then to slightly paraphrase the late Al Jolson: "You ain't seen nothing yet." Wait until the next 9/11 type of attack and see how well DHS responds.
I, for one, would like to know who these "insiders" are that know the real deal. The people who listen to Sean Hannity every day, like I do who gives us all the news "the rest of the media won't report ?" (If you are WTTK listener BTW, I think Jay Sevrin had it right on Iraq, one of the few things I agreed with him on) I realized too at the outset that the war in Iraq was a serious long term commitment, but the point is, our national command authority didn't. Tommy Franks didn't, Bremer didn't. Dear Lady: who do you think runs this country ? Certainly not Mark or Mrs. Wildweasel. The politicians both in and out of uniform do. You and I and those troops on the ground are not empowered. I find it interesting that you support the government with regard to the war, but then turn right around and are wary of that same government who would restrict your right to bear arms. That view seems inconsistent with me, just as I don't understand how conservatives support Bush, when his adminstration has racked up a huge deficit, something that the Republicans were always complaining about when the Democrats were in power, except for the last Democratic adminstration which balanced the books.
Yeah, there are lots of decent hard-working Iraquis who want to see their country change. There are countless members of our armed forces who are dedicated to the mission....but you know what ? One can say the same thing about Viet Nam. We could have won there too, but again our leadership was at fault, not the troops on the ground. Unfortunately the PFCs, and Sgts and the Gy Sgts (for you Marines) and Capts and the field grades, the people fighting the war...are doing a helluva job, for the most part, but they are not the ones who make the "big picture" decisions.
Now I think that it is grand that you are proud of your son, and I respect his service, and yet at the same time, if I had an 18 or 19 year old son, I'd discourage him from enlisting and maybe even ship him off to Canada to school. Talk about being torn apart emotionally everyday, that's me !
The history of the United States has clearly demonstrated, at least to me, that we haven't done such a good job as nation builders.
I'll ask you this question: even if we commit ourselves to Iraq and are successful, can we do this at what price ? Our own security, maybe ? What do we do about the non-linear threat, the Islamic Jihadists, the growing number of extreme militants in this country like August Kreis and the Aryan Nations, who call for an alliance with the teroorists ? This is going to be a long fight and do we to be squandering our military nation-building ?
Frankly, Mrs. Wildweasel, I hope I'm wrong. I hope that Iraq becomes a model capitalistic democracy in the Middle East, I hope by say 2018 we can say that George W. Bush was a genius in the mode of someone like Harry Truman who weathered the storm of popular media criticism to stay on an even course....I want to be wrong, but unless things change in Washington at the White House and the Pentagon and at State and the people at the top get their act together, we're in one big mess.
So we are going to agree to disagree, but that's okay because this forum is really about guns and related issue, and on that topic, at least we have some consensus.
Respectfully,
Mark
