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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (44799)	5/17/2004 7:46:55 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793617

KLP, Berg's death and other current events are actually decreasing our focus on the real problems. We are becoming sidetracked. It is apparent in the reporting. Most cannot get a grip on the reality of our enemy's focus and drive. This is very unfortunate. We have to get over it and get on with it. We must give our opponents what they want, an opportunity to fight. They will settle for nothing less. I predict a so far subtle but increasing fear level in Americans. IMO the terrorists are winning a round right here. We have the Olympics, the Democratic and Republican Conventions and the election coming up. Nearly everyone I have asked says they expect us to get hit big this summer or fall. Yet many Americans have already lost the will to fight that 9/11 created. We have become introspective much too soon. Many are seemingly shocked (or afraid) of the ugliness of war. Soldiers abusing soldiers is what war is all about. Why is that shocking? What did everyone expect - a bloodless and painless war fought according to some polite rules of etiquette. There is no politeness in war. Sneaky, tricky and dirty rule the day and makes winners. Some will want to argue that. They will be those with no combat experience who think we can and should fight the Muslim militant extremists while following the The Marquis of Queensberry Rules for amateur boxing. We have just increased recruiting command's quota by 500 men per month. We are considering leaving Korea. (I always said we could do that. Our most likely response to a NK problem is nukes not ground troops. But most will see this move differently than I.) We are entering the 3rd year of a war. A time when historically our voluntary enlistments sharply decline. We also have a number of reasons to consider expansion of the war. In short we currently have a divergent set of situations. We have some serious decisions to make to get all of these factors to gel together. Our response to all of this is to argue whether a naked POW wearing lady's underwear is worse than the beheading of an unarmed non-combatant. Our focus is terribly wrong. Let's hope it is a temporary condition. unclewest