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

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (72055)	2/7/2003 2:42:04 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 281500

America prepares for war: Calling for morticians to handle our casualties: Morticians: Uncle Sam needs you David Stonehouse The Ottawa Citizen Wednesday, February 05, 2003 The United States navy is desperate for morticians. It is taking out want ads online offering $6,000 U.S. bonuses to morticians who are willing to enlist. "We are looking for candidates nationwide!!!!" trumpets the ad at HotJobs.com . It promises not just the sign-up cash, but service in places such as Italy, Spain and Guam. "Even during peacetime," the ad reads, "we are funeral service professionals caring for our brothers and sisters-in-arms throughout the world during a most difficult time, providing aid to their families with honor and dignity." The U.S. navy -- which at its own Web site navy.com tries to entice new recruits with the slogan "Accelerate Your Life" -- says the morticians it requires would be based in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego and other cities, but would be required for worldwide service. "You would serve as a uniformed member of the United States Navy Hospital Corps, a group deeply ingrained with traditions of honour and commitment not unlike the devotion of those who choose the funeral industry as their career," the advertisement says. "Experience in all facets of the funeral industry is a plus with emphasis placed on technical ability." The U.S. navy denies the search has anything to do with a possible war in Iraq. "If somebody walked in the door today and he had the skills, he had the test scores, and he -- or she -- was physically fit and ready to go, it would be over a year before that person got into fleet," Cmdr. Steven Lowry of Navy Recruiting Command in Millington, Tennessee, said yesterday. "It's purely circumstantial, really." And he said bonuses are not unusual, noting that cash enticements for nuclear propulsion operators are as high as $20,000 U.S. Cmdr. Lowry could not say how many morticians are in the service now but took pains to portray the search as nothing out of the ordinary. "Right now we need some," he said. "Six months from now, that may not be the case. It is the same with machinist-mates or cryptologists or oceanographers." canada.com

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (72055)	2/7/2003 2:52:45 AM
From: paul_philp	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Jacob, Victory will come from CorrectAction, which flows from CorrectThinking, which we haven't even begun to do. Right now, we're just acting like a big, successful hammer, that sees nothing but nails. Nonsense. You are paying too much attention to propaganda and not enough attention to facts. What has actually happened? 1) Defeated the Taliban and disrupted AQ in Afghanistan. 2) Conducted very public year long campaign to convince the UN to clean up a mess in Iraq - enforce the surrender treaty. Propaganda says "US rushes foolishly and unilateraly to war" but facts says "US moves deliberately, slowly and thoughtfully to build international support for war against Iraq". Sort the signal from the noise. The hard part is convincing all those young men memorising the Koran in madrassahs (and polishing their box-cutters), that there is a BetterWay. Do this, and we begin to separate the fish (Al Queda, Hesbollah, etc.) from the ocean they swim in (a billion Muslims). True. This part cannot be done with armies and bombs. Can't do this part while the Palestinians and Israeli's kill each other with such abandon. Lots of groundwork still to be laid. In order to defeat the guerrilla army we face, we have got to study things we've ignored up till now, learn to do things we've never been good at. Start by watching all the Bin Laden tapes. Twice. Read the "Quotations of Chairman Mao". Do a lot of public opinion polls in Muslim countries. Analyse General Giap's tactics, that he used to beat us in Vietnam. See the connections. Read Guns of August. Fight this war not the last war. This is not a Guerilla war. This is a network war. Keep killing nodes, don't fight on their turf, cut off their money. Paul

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (72055)	2/7/2003 12:30:33 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Jacob, I don't believe enough people appreciate the notion that "playing the game, changes the game". Also, war strategy changes based on the advancement of technology. Second guessing, and believing we could possibly know the best strategy for taking out Iraq's military is an exercise in hubris. At some point, we simply have to have faith in our military leaders ability to lead and manage the war effort. I've said this before, but feel compelled to repeat it. This is not the Vietnam era military. This is not the same military which fought in 1983 in Granada. Since Ronald Reagan's Presidency, the United States military has been rebuilt from the ground up. It started by paying people better, by purchasing decent equipment, by building housing which families could feel proud to live in, by core values leadership training up and down the chain of command, by having the toughest drug testing program in the world, and by training, training and training, then training some more... Fortunately, (unlike many countries), our business leaders have succeeded, and we were able to afford to pay the price of these endeavors. We're now witnessing the wisdom of that forward thinking. In the Gulf war, we saw this new military taking shape. And in the swift victory in Afghanistan, we saw how far it has come. Invading Iraq and taking out Saddam's war machine will be no easy task. But I feel confident our military leaders will plan and execute well. In the end, the tyranny of his rule will be ended. "Free Iraq, protect America". (make a good bumper sticker don't you think? :)