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

To: unclewest who wrote (46802)	5/25/2004 11:50:07 AM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 793970

Is there morale high ground in war? I am surprised you think so. I suspect that's one of our more fundamental disagreements. Let me take a step back. I see the Iraqi invasion and the conflict with Al Q as separate things, a bit more connected now because of the way the Bush folk handled the invasion. But only that. The fight with Al Q is only partially a war in the conventional sense of the term; it's also a very broad attempt to change the social contexts out of which Al Q recruits come. The Bush administration defers in this direction but makes a mistake by claiming one can impose proper social contexts (something called freedom) by force. Taking the moral high ground is absolutely essential to the long term attempts to reduce the Al Qs of the world. As for the paragraph about mistakes in the midst of conflicts, I'm not talking about that. We all know that happens and I don't doubt the US military, as with most state based militaries, have ways to deal with those issues. I'm talking about the regulations for handling POWS and the practices. I think it's quite clear the practices were not only not acceptable, something we both agree on, but the climate in which those practices occurred was not acceptable, something we disagree about, and thus, in my view, responsibility goes quite high. At least to the civilian leadership of the Pentagon. Weather here is wonderful; low 70s, low humidity; but the money continues to run out the door. Much money for a new sidewalk and, today, much money for a large air conditioner installed in the living room.