To: TimF who wrote (176843 ) 10/21/2003 6:02:46 PM From: tejek Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 1574273 I've got news for you.......with Afghanistan, we were supposed to go in, find OBL, get rid of the Taliban and set up a democratic gov't. Two years later, an exit plan is no where in sight. Two years is a short time, not a long time when dealing with situations like this. That's right.......because its very difficult for a standing army to fight with insurgent guerillas. That's why these things turn into Vietnams. With Afghanistan, we should have toppled the Taliban, put up a new govt and then split. With Iraq, we should have stayed the hell out of there. This AM I was watching a video on the Iraq/Iran war. It reasserted my belief that wars are a total waste of life and money, and most times, accomplish very little.You seem to think Iraq too will be a quickie job. Once again you demonstrate an amazingly bad talent at guessing what I think. Try flipping coins your percentage will go up. I can only go by what you say or hint at.As for more freedom being usurped every day, I think you exagerate this. It is to a small extent true but it was also true in different ways before the war on terrorism and before the Bush administration. Our freedoms have been slowly usurped at least since WWII, probably since the Civil War, maybe even earlier, but its very slow. Even if it keeps going in this direction it doesn't seem to be heading to a facist state. Sorry, in the past three years, there has been a dramatic usurping of freedoms. The reach of the Patriot Act, as one example, has been extended far beyond what was first intended. It seems whenever religion gets introduced into the mix, freedoms tend to evaporate. ted