Hi NightOwl; Re: "You do realize you can't win this argument with a nihilist don't you Carl?"
Yes I do. I'm arguing for the audience, meagre though it may be.
Re: "Let's see "no armor" vs. "improved armor"... I'll go with the improved armor and take my chances."
We used armor in Vietnam. The enemy fought us in places where our armor couldn't go. The situation in Iraq is somewhat similar in that there are plenty of places in Iraq where armor is channelled by various obstructions.
But the real problem, in comparing Vietnam to Iraq, is that in Vietnam, we had pretty good control over the cities. In Iraq, by contrast, the Iraqis we have trained have all either melted away, or gone over to the rebels. We have such little control over the cities that we do not even TRY to disarm the civilian population.
Re: "Boy do I have your extremely high kill ratio's! How many Fallujahians do you want taken out?"
This is a great solution, but our military won't do it. Nor will the public sign up for it. Like Hawkmoon, you're arguing for this idea from the point of view of a small minority. Small minorities don't rule American foreign policy (most of the time, LOL).
Re: "Carl I frankly don't know what to tell you."
Yes, you don't know crap about military history, strategy or how to work with numbers.
Re: "I'm trying to be optimistic here."
That's how we got into this fiasco. Take off the optimistic glasses and look at the world the way it is.
Re: "But I have to tell you CB, I frankly do not care to live under that or any other threat from these suicidal idiots."
Death will get you no matter what you do, so why do you quake in fear of suicidal idiots? Since the 9/11 attacks, we've lost tens of thousands to bloody automobile accidents, suicides and murders. You can't hide from Death. Don't let your fear confuse your thinking.
Re: "Give them 48 hours to get their act straight if you want, but to embark on a "20 year" occupation of their nuthouse, when you know you can stop it all in a month doesn't compute in my mathmatology."
Your mathamtology fails to take into account the consequences of its own actions. If you did that one month "final solution" in Iraq, you'd just have that much worse of a problem everywhere else.
For 500 years, the English attempted a final solution in Ireland but failed. Humans just like to be free. Or more precisely, they like to be ruled by people of their own ethnic group.
-- Carl |
