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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tekboy who wrote (34082)	7/10/2002 12:31:47 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Thanks for posting that excellent piece, tb. I suspect that plans calling for speed, stealth as well as overwhelming force are being readied. The combination makes sense given the imponderables. The action against Iraq might be a cakewalk, but it also might be much more difficult than anyone thinks. Some time ago, I saw some figures indicating that Saddam simply doesn't have the money to properly rebuild his conventional forces after the Gulf War. This is unfortunately a double edged sword as he might be tempted to rely on relatively cheap chemical or bacteriological means to defend himself. We'll see. Next Spring should be interesting.

To: tekboy who wrote (34082)	7/11/2002 5:12:57 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi tekboy; Re: Michael O'Hanlon's: "The US would win, but possibly at the price of thousands of US casualties, not to mention a long-term occupation of the country." "Win" and "long term occupation" are incompatible. A long term occupation of Iraq would put us up against the various Islamic liberation groups. We would have zero chance of pacifying the country. The fact is that we (and no one else for that matter) have never succeeded in truly pacifying an enemy country without turning the Geneva Convention on civilians into mincemeat, at least as it is currently interpreted. Humans are nasty creatures who love to fight, and it is not possible to pacify them without killing lots of them. -- Carl