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 : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (188919)	5/20/2004 12:03:09 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578110

Yea, the world sure has become a more dangerous place in the last 3 1/2 years.

To: tejek who wrote (188919)	5/20/2004 1:50:03 PM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1578110

U.S. Military Report Draws Iraq, Vietnam Parallel 1 hour, 35 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. action in Iraq (news - web sites) could prove a foreign policy debacle if the Bush administration ignores Washington's painful failure at nation-building in South Vietnam a generation ago, a new Army report warns. Reuters Photo As in Southeast Asia, the United States is trying to fashion a legitimate state in Iraq against a backdrop of insurgency, rising U.S. death tolls and tenuous support at home, said the report published this month by the Army War College. But U.S. troops, viewed by many Iraqis as invaders, lack the advantage of South Vietnam's large domestic security force as they seek to build new institutions under the pressure of a June 30 deadline for transfer of sovereignty. "In Vietnam, we were trying to prop up a government that had little legitimacy. In Iraq, we're trying to weave together a government and support it so it can develop legitimacy. Both are extremely hard to do," said co-author W. Andrew Terrill, of the War College's Strategic Studies Institute. The Vietnam War, a Cold War catastrophe that still haunts American policymakers, ended in the 1970s with 58,000 U.S. war dead after public opinion turned against policies aimed at containing Communism in Southeast Asia. Administration officials have rejected assertions Iraq, now a main front in the U.S. war on terrorism, poses a Vietnam-like quagmire for the 135,000 U.S. troops now inside the country. Terrill and his co-author, Air Force War College professor Jeffrey Record, say there are few military parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, where Communist fighters backed by the Soviet Union and China defeated a peak force of 500,000 U.S. troops. But their 69-page report, titled "Iraq and Vietnam: Differences, Similarities and Insights," warns of dire consequences if the political lessons of Vietnam go unheeded. "Repetition of those failures in Iraq could have disastrous consequences for U.S. foreign policy," it says. Terrill and Record warned of potentially dangerous political damage to U.S.-Arab relations if Washington's objective of installing democracy in Iraq means the establishment a large American military presence in the region. The War College says the report does not necessarily reflect the views of the Army, Pentagon (news - web sites) or U.S. government. U.S. PUBLIC IMPATIENCE Given that Iraqis have known nothing but authoritarian rule since the country's inception, it's impossible to say whether U.S. policy will succeed, the authors say. Insurgent violence could also grow after the June 30 handover, when the run-up to elections magnifies divisions among rival ethnic, religious and tribal groups, all well-stocked with weapons and ammunition. "The main threat to state-building in Iraq lies not in the insurgency in central Iraq but rather in the potential for the recent uprising of Shi'ite militants to reignite, expand, and include large elements of that community, or the development of the kind of sectarian civil war that plunged Lebanon into near anarchy for almost two decades," the report says. U.S.-led forces have proved incapable of achieving order in Iraq, more than a year after invading the Arab nation to look for weapons of mass destruction that have not been found. With U.S. deaths in Iraq now at 791 and taxpayer costs expected to soar above $180 billion, the authors are cautious about the longevity of U.S. public support. "Americans could become very impatient should the rationale for a continuing and costly U.S. occupation of Iraq shift to a more direct focus on uplifting the Iraqi people, especially if the Iraq public appears ungrateful," their report says.

To: tejek who wrote (188919)	5/20/2004 6:54:41 PM
From: steve harris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578110

ted, I agree with you on this. It is sickening. Gay marriages and government benefits for rump riders, abortion still rampant, Moore and Kerry on the loose campaigning against our current elected government actually bragging on their foreign support they have received. Terrorist's well being in our jails are more important than Nick Berg getting his head sawed off. Inmates here being treated better by the liberals than the left treat our honorable men and women in our military. What an upside down world the left wing democrats are trying to create. Fortunately the left lost in 2000 and 2002, so after 2004, maybe, just maybe the left will crawl back under their rocks and hide for another 30 years. Steve