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

To: greenspirit who wrote (87405)	11/22/2004 11:20:38 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 793578

Our military will continue to pound these guys, something they definitely didn't want. I think you’re missing the whole point of their strategy. They’re playing rope-a-dope with us, and they want us pounding as hard as we can, in places where we don’t really hurt them. They want us out there kicking in doors and raiding mosques, keep those nasty pictures all over Al Jazeera. This is not a war for territorial control, and it’s not a war where body counts make any difference. They know they can’t beat us on the battlefield, but they know that our weakness, inherent to any democracy, is staying power. They think they can outlast us, and they may be right. They also think that if we oblige them by providing sufficient propaganda material, they may be able to whip up enough Islamist sentiment in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia to topple one or both of those very inept and vulnerable governments. If that happens, we’ll be having nostalgic dreams of Saddam Hussein. I’m not saying we shouldn’t kick down doors and raid mosques. We have to do those things; we don’t have any choice. That’s the whole problem: we know these things hurt us, and we know that the more aggressive we get, the thinner the ice gets under some of our key allies. We don’t want to do these things, but we’ve been maneuvered into a place where we don’t have any choice. That’s not a pleasing prospect. It’s never pleasing to see an enemy maneuver you into a place where you have to do things that you don’t want to do. We are winning the battles – as anyone would expect – and the self-congratulation has gotten pretty deafening. I’m not convinced that we’re winning the war, and I think our opponents may be playing us into a very difficult place. For the record, I don’t think Kerry would have been any better on Iraq policies, or much different, despite all the talk. Not that many options out there any more.