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

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (222468)	3/4/2007 11:43:09 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

We spend $400 billion dollars on our military. The $300 billion we spent in Iraq does not even count in this budget. Give me a scenario where we might lose a war. Show me the magician that can make it look like they can defeat our military. On the one hand, you claim we always win. On the other, most of the thread is not only convinced that Iraq is doomed, they are convinced it was doomed from day one, not by any mistakes the coalition forces made. Something's screwy here. Winning in the real world does NOT equal looking spiffy on parade. If that were true, Saudi Arabia would have one of the best armies in the Mideast, lol. The army has to be well trained - and battle is by far the best reality check of what works - and your enemy has to know you have the will to use it. Oil is fungible. Although we may be addicted to oil to make our lives easer, the ME is addicted to making money selling oil so they can be fed. We have at least seven aircraft carrier (maybe 10) groups that no one can come close to matching. We control the sea lanes. We control the sea lanes NOW because we are the global hegemon. This status is not written into stone and can change. If we are perceived as weak and easily spooked, somebody is going to try to change it, and that somebody looks like Iran. So what if oil is fungible and the trade is worldwide? Huge amounts of that trade funnel through the Straits of Hormuz. He who has the power to destroy something, has the power to control it.