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

To: stockman_scott who wrote (197431)	8/15/2006 4:12:59 AM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I heard Kristol try to sound like an adult on Charlie Rose tonight....nope, not even close. I never realized just how bratty a kid he is. He so reminds me of that other bratty nitwit Dubyette. Kristol, after being wrong-wrong-wrong is now blaming Rumsfeld for mucking up the war. His solution? Fire Rumsfeld and send in 30,000 fresh troops --- apparently some even from Afghanistan although that part was unclear as was where in the blooming heck any fresh troops were going to come from --- and all will be well in Iraq. OMG. His proof? There were approximately that many more troops in Iraq during the elections and the elections went off without any major death. Do you think he remembers that, during the elections, there were no vehicles on the road, nothing happening anywhere? Is he now going to feed people, pick up garbage, work all the jobs because there will be no cars on the streets, no people going anywhere except to vote? OMG. How stupid are these idiots? Stupider than I ever thought --- OR ---- in love with perpetual war all throughout the region. I vote that they are stupider than anyone ever thought. Wolfowitz's saliva comb-through and inane yammerings should have provided enough of a clue. As Holbrooke said, Iraq needed 500,000-600,000 troops for the kind of overwhelming force seen in Bosnia. I think Holbrooke wanted to call Kristol a blithering idiot but managed to stop himself. Kristol's solution for Iraq: oh, go ahead and just sit and wait for 3-6 more months and see how things go. OMG. Kristol's solution for Iran which he sees as problem number 1...nuttin. I think he wanted to say nuclear war but didn't. Nice to see US Foreign Policy being run by bratty, stupid kids. OMG.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (197431)	8/15/2006 11:53:28 AM
From: TimF	Respond to of 281500

Unless the US and British display an extraordinary level of incompetence no large or even mid sized units are going to be so cut off. A small patrol, maybe squad sized or even platoon size might be, but any significant unit is likely to roll over any potential enemy unit in the area that tries to stop it. It might take casualties in the process, but likely a lot less then the force it is fighting. attacks that US air power could not hope completely to stop (as the experience of Israel with Hizbullah in Lebanon demonstrates). Air power couldn't destroy a decent sized force that was dispersed, hidden, and dug in. If a force masses in enough force to seriously threaten something like an American battalion, air power is likely to cut it to pieces. Harassing fire from dispersed mortar or rocket positions could cause American casualties but the American force would hardly be sitting ducks. Even firing a few rounds and running away causes the enemy forces to run the risk of destruction, and if that's all they do, they will never seriously threaten a major American or British unit. Now in the worst case scenario if the whole country really turned against us in a decisive way casualties would go up and there would not longer be any hope of achieving anything, so we would pull out and we would take some casualties while doing so. It would be something like the American pullout of Vietnam. What it wouldn't be like is the French defeat in Vietnam, with fortified positions overrun, and units in the field destroyed. en.wikipedia.org belmontclub.blogspot.com