Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: tekboy who wrote (132384)	5/9/2004 8:55:14 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

tb, I don't think it is out of the blue. Last year Wayne said quite publicly, "You have to be crazy to want to live and work in DC." Yet, Downing does not have an ounce of quit in him. I am sure he would stay if he felt he had a substantial contribution to make that could not be done by someone else. He has been a member of the president's advisory committee on terrorism since day one along with General Carl Steiner and 24 other highly skilled individuals. But his first love has always been an active role with Special Forces and SpecOps. I can think of several other reasons than your three or four...health, a book deal, another less visible (classified) role, He may have groomed and be quite comfortable with a successor, or like Sid Shelton and Sid Shachnow, he may, after over 40 years of being on the leading edge of Special Forces, be ready to retire. Last I heard, Steiner is still involved but lives in Ky on his Dad's farm and commutes to DC one or two days a week for meetings. Downing's job required full-time presence. I am seeing more of that lately. It seems 60 or shortly thereafter is when most career SFers opt out if they haven't done so earlier. There are a few exceptions I can think of, but they are all involved in training except one. He still has an active role, but told me yesterday he is ready to go...He is 62. We have been buds since he was 20. The current crop of SF generals is considered the best ever by everyone. And there are the most ever. All of the old hands are quite comfortable turning over all the reins to them. Even the Command Sergeants Major I know, retired and active, like the current top leadership. Finally, as you pointed out, SFers do not like politics. He may just be fed up with the DC BS. Including the current incident. Wayne would not like the incident, the apologies nor the dog and pony show on TV. Nor do I believe would he approve of the current field tactics. Many of us believe the biggest current problem is we have yet to take out enough of the bad guys to get submission or even to reduce their desire to fight. This is no time to slack off. We need to continue to press. We need to exert even more pressure right now. I do agree with you that his expertise will be missed. I also think we have excellent, equally qualified replacements available now. Lt General Kensinger comes to mind. Though I would not rule out a 4th star and another assignment for him soon. uw

To: tekboy who wrote (132384)	5/9/2004 9:20:36 PM
From: Rascal	Respond to of 281500

Message 20108427

To: tekboy who wrote (132384)	5/9/2004 9:39:47 PM
From: Don Hurst	Respond to of 281500

>>"...but what brought this up out of the blue?"<< Must have a book ready to come out.....that would be something new, wouldn't it?

To: tekboy who wrote (132384)	5/9/2004 10:21:55 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Running Against Osama bin Laden __________________________________ He's the stealth candidate in the 2004 presidential race. Guess who's winning? WEB EXCLUSIVE By Howard Fineman Newsweek msnbc.msn.com Updated: 5:01 p.m. ET May 05, 2004 - George W. Bush’s political handlers are obsessed with a date on the calendar. It’s not Sept. 11 or Nov. 2. It is June 30 — the day of the “handover,” when America’s role in Iraq is supposed to begin winding down. Swing voters who have been withholding judgment about the war want to see if the “transition” produces stability in Iraq and a reduction in American casualties, a key Bush adviser told me. “That’s a critical time,” he said. “It could set the tone for the rest of the race.” This is the sound of wishful thinking. Team Bush is deluding itself if it really believes that the events surrounding June 30 will lighten the political burden of the war. The reason is simple and depressing: They are not in control of events, and neither are our few allies on the ground in Iraq. Osama bin Laden is in charge. He’s the other “candidate” in this presidential race. And he’s winning. A year ago, the Bushies were planning to run away from the economy and toward the war, outing the president’s role as commander-in-chief. Now they might want to run away from the war and toward the economy. Though the president isn’t highly regarded for economic leadership, at least there is good news to brag about (not counting the prices of gasoline). There is precious little good news from Iraq, or from the wider war on terror. In fact, things couldn’t be going better for bin Laden if he'd written the script. To be sure, many members of his inner circle have been killed or are on the run. Finances have been disrupted, and police agencies have had considerable success rounding up potential terrorists. But look at the rest of the wartime ledger from OBL’s own point of view. For him, it’s all upside. Taliban on the Comeback In the last year or so, the U.S. has divided its friends and united its enemies. The Taliban is on the comeback trail in the mountains of Afghanistan, and the Saudi royal family — no angels, but at least fitfully cooperative — are in the fundamentalists’ line of fire. We wrested control of one giant oil-producing country (Iraq) from the hands of a bad guy (Saddam) but in doing so may have helped generate an insurrection in the biggest of them all (Saudi Arabia). To bin Laden, Iraq is Afghanistan of a quarter-century ago, times 10: a recruiting ground, a cause to unite all Arabs and Muslims in jihad, the start of the ultimate clash with the infidel. Iraq was the war Bush wanted. But it also was the war OBL wanted. Not even in his most fevered prayers could bin Laden have imagined the propaganda coup offered by the pictures of humiliated prisoners in Baghdad. It’s unfair, really: Saddam’s murderous sadism went on for decades, largely away from the media’s eyes. We are conducting our war in public and by standards of decency and law unknown in the Persian Gulf. But pictures don’t come with context, and these paint us the way OBL wants us to be seen. Bin Laden’s bet was, and is, that the United States is too weak-willed and economically vulnerable to last for long in a war against jihadis motivated by centuries of hatred for the West. The American public will tire of the fight, and the cost will weaken an economy already facing competition from Europe and China. He hoped to provoke an Armageddon, and now he has one. Will Al Qaeda try to launch another attack in the U.S. before the presidential election? Probably. How would that effect the presidential election? Hard to say. America is not Spain, but the public’s patience is not unlimited, either. © 2004 Newsweek, Inc.