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

To: LindyBill who wrote (52304)	6/30/2004 11:42:17 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

Just saw an interview with Christianne Amanpour on Charlie Rose. She presented a balanced glass-half-full/half-empty view of Iraq, which agrees with the ideas I had been getting from reading the press and blogs. The insurgency has no popular support but people are still too scared of the insurgents to inform on them; Fallujah is a mini Taliban state full of foreign fighters; the people are glad to be rid of Saddam and hopeful about the future; they really want democracy but worry it will be torpedoed; they are traumatized all over (they who were already traumatized by 30 years of Saddam) by this spate of violence, which slows down the large scale reconstruction that must be done; the new government talks a good game but still must rely on American muscle; it's still a question if the new government can convince the people that they are strong enough for people to dare to support them against the terrorists. All in all, pretty balanced, without too much of the relentless cynicism and pessimism that besets so many veteran reporters.

To: LindyBill who wrote (52304)	7/1/2004 12:23:38 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793838

I promised a report on the annual Special Forces Association Convention and Reunion held last week in Las Vegas. I did attend. It was very very different from last year. It was quite different from the last several. The tone was different. Everything was different. I took a mini-vacation on the way home and still need time to evaluate what I learned. I plan to talk to buddies this week and try to evaluate the changes. My feelings right now are the SF community is getting tired. I hate to say that...I really hate to say it...But I am. The young guys are overdeployed. The SF divorce rate is reportedly getting back to the 85% it once was in the late 60's. Many A teams are gone for 85+% of the time. The old-timers are still being retained. Retirement is still on hold for most. Some specialists cannot get out regardless of the number of combat tours or years deployed overseas. In my 20+ years active duty, before being medically retired, I served nearly 11 overseas, all in combat or very high risk assignments. I am told that record is being beat regularly by today's SF troops. I may be wrong...and hope I am. But I did not smell the attitude that I grew up with in SF...That my team can change the world right now today. I must also note that, last year, four SF generals attended. This year there were none. Last year, A team members from teams in Afghan and Iraq attended that had performed the most incredible and heroic acts. This year I saw none. Hopefully they were with their families instead of us. I became involved in many conversations and listened intently to some of my very best buddies, for the last 42 years, talk about the lack of resolve among some of the American public and their unwillingness to defend their own freedoms. Nobody thought it was a disease caught by all. They were dismayed that it had seemingly spread far. Everybody thought that the war on terror was, in the near future, going to get far worse for Americans than for our adversaries. Everybody wondered if we have the resolve to fight to win. unclewest