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

To: John Soileau who wrote (134512)	5/26/2004 11:15:36 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

1.Bush pulled men, materiel, and money OUT OF Afghanistan, where al Qaeda unquestionably had its bases. Smooth move! He did? I don't recall that.. In fact, I believe we just reinforced Afghanistan with 2,000 marines. We certainly have more troops there than during the actual overthrow of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The reality is that Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces are not basing in Afghanistan, but along the Pakistani border. Which means we have to pressure the Pakistanis to deal with their side of the border, hopefully squeezing these terrorists into a classic "hammer and anvil" operation. Of course, there's no guarantee that we can rely upon Pakistan to fulfill their obligations on their side of the border.. But it's better to pressure them for now rather than undermining Musharraf's efforts to dominate the Islamist elements in his society and potentially subvert his government. 3. Bush will shortly pull 3,600 soldiers OUT OF South Korea, and move them into Iraq. Hey, lets enhance our security by removing about 10% of the troops guarding against the craziest, most dangerous nuclear power on the planet--one that actually has long-range missiles. Smooth move Long-range missiles that can, at best, hit Japan, S. Korea, or China... And the South has more than adequate forces to defend themselves against any potential attack by the North.. Additionally, Bush has pursued a MULTI-LATERAL negotiating approach to resolving the N. Korean issue.. He's getting other regional countries involved.. Just like he tried to do with the UN and other countries surrounding Iraq.. So get a grip.. US strategic interests ARE at stake in the Mid-East.. Certainly more than they are on the Korean peninsula, where there are many other partners available to thwart Kim Jong Il. If anything disturbs me, it's the potential that Bush is going to close down the NTC so that the 11th ACR can be deployed to Iraq. They are the OPFOR force that regularly beats the dickens out of other Army units. Hawk

To: John Soileau who wrote (134512)	5/26/2004 11:23:51 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hawkmoon has already answered you on Afghanistan. I will answer for Korea: we should move all our troops out of there (the S Koreans seem to want this), they are merely serving as a tripwire, and the way the regime is behaving, they may make war more likely rather than less. There are certainly not enough of them to fight with. Moving a few thousand troops here or there is hardly something you can make a huge case out of. As for Saddam Hussein, he was a big problem for the US regardless of AQ, he was moving closer and closer to the terrorists, and the US-maintained "box" that everybody else likes to talk about confidently was looking like a swiss cheese.