[Rhodes22-list] I Wish To Change My Vote

[brad haslett]

Roger,

Excellent choice!  Your observations on Vietnam and
how it relates to our current situation are absolutely
correct.  For more perspective on Kerry's questionable
behavior after returning from Vietnam, go to
www.wintersoldier.com.  There is a link to his first
book "The New Solder.  This is the book that the DNC
has tried to buy up every copy of to get it off the
market.  Read it.  You will be even more convinced of
the correctness of your decision.

Your comments on oil are on target as well.  In the
short term there is no fundamental reason for oil to 
be at $50/barrel, but in the longer term, oil will be
the single most precious commodity sought by
industrialized nations.  China's rapidly growing
demand alone will drive the price up and India is
right behind them.  One huge unknown is the size of
the Russian and the former Soviet States reserves. 
There was a great article in Fridays Wall Street
Journal discussing this.  But, even if there are two
to three times the reserves there as have been
reported, we are only talking about extending the
inevitable for perhaps another decade.  In the
meantime, the folks who possess the largest reserves
are not very friendly or stable.

Brad Haslett
"CoraShen"

--- Roger Pihlaja <cen09402 at centurytel.net> wrote:

> Well, after watching the presidential & vice
> presidential debates, I wish to pull a flip flop &
> change my vote to Bush/Cheney.  Let me explain my
> thinking.
> 
> As a draftable male college student in the early
> 1970's, I watched developments in the Vietnam war &
> the protest movement here at home with great
> interest.  John Kerry's presidential candidacy has
> made me reexamine my own attitudes towards Vietnam. 
> There were a lot of mistakes made in the way the
> United States conducted the Vietnam war -
> presidential micromanagement of war strategy at the
> tactical level, overly restrictive rules of
> engagement, "pin-prick" strikes vs. the use of
> overwhelming force, allowing the enemy to reoccupy
> captured territory thus causing multiple battles
> over the same sites, over reliance on airpower in a
> jungle gorilla war, forced adoption of weapons like
> the M-16 assault rifle that were not yet ready for
> prime time, etc.  The US military shot its
> credibility in the foot by publishing inflated enemy
> "body counts" that had no basis in reality.  This
> was also the 1st war that played out on American
> television screens on the news every evening.  The
> Tet offensive was really the turning point.  You
> really have to give the VC a lot credit for the way
> they pulled off Tet.  Seemingly under our very
> noses, the VC had constructed extensive underground
> tunnel complexes within striking distance of
> strategic targets all over South Vietnam.  They had
> spent years building these tunnel complexes &
> stocking them with weapons and ammunition.  We were
> completely surprised when the VC seemingly came out
> of nowhere in a massive coordinated assault on
> something like 23 targets all over South Vietnam. 
> Yet, within a month, we had recaptured all these
> targets.  We took something like 4000 casualties,
> the largest US body count of any battle in the
> Vietnam war.  But, reliable North Vietnamese
> casualty data indicates we slaughtered them
> something like 4:1.  Some VC units were completely
> wiped out & were never again an effective fighting
> force.  The Tet offensive was pretty much an all
> out, one time attempt for North Vietnam. 
> Tactically, the VC got decisively defeated & it set
> their ability to wage war back by years.  But, by
> then, the US military had lost nearly all of its
> credibility.  No one believed the US military
> published body counts, or accounts of recaptured
> cities, and the US casualties were all over the
> nightly news.  The American public was horrified at
> the carnage on display on their televisions & it
> changed everything.  Before Tet, most of the
> American public believed the Vietnam war was
> winnable.  After Tet, the antiwar movement grew
> exponentially, the talk changed to "peace with
> honor" & getting the troops home.  So, even though
> the Tet offensive was a decisive tactical defeat for
> North Vietnam, their all or nothing gamble paid off
> and eventually resulted in total victory.
> 
> The lesson the world took away from Vietnam was the
> United States is a military superpower with no
> staying power.  We'll spend a fortune on weapon
> systems and training to enable our military to
> efficiently kill from a distance.  Our military has
> learned from the mistakes made in Vietnam & has
> fixed most of them.  We go into a conflict with
> overwhelming force and just simply roll over our
> enemy.  But, anyone that can reduce a conflict to a
> bloody, protracted battle of attrition, especially
> when it is played out on the nightly news, will
> eventually win over American public opinion & defeat
> us.
> 
> So, what kind of a president will John Kerry make? 
> With Bush, we have 4 years of actual presidential
> record to examine.  With Kerry, we must look at his
> life experiences that have prepared him to be
> president.  As I examine John Kerry's resume, I see
> a rich, privileged kid that went off to war in
> Vietnam in what might be called "patriotic fervor". 
> In Vietnam, he looked the horrible face of war
> square in the eyes & it scared & sickened him. 
> Kerry's record since Vietnam indicates he has turned
> into an appeaser.  His voting record in the US
> Senate is especially revealing in this regard.  Just
> like the United State's reputation in the world,
> Kerry makes a lot of blustering tough statements
> about fighting terrorism & finishing what we started
> in Iraq during the campaign.  But, when the rubber
> hits the road & the body count starts climbing,
> Kerry wants to fold.  After listening to the debates
> and considering Kerry's record, there is no doubt in
> my mind; that, if Kerry is elected, the US will make
> a speedy withdrawal from Iraq, no matter the side
> effects.
> 
> Some of you may be saying, "So what, we shouldn't
> have gotten into Iraq in the 1st place!"  Well, that
> depends upon what you believe the war on terrorism
> is.  Is it merely a "law enforcement" issue against
> groups of isolated radical Muslims?  Or, has it
> become a life & death struggle between ideologies? 
> I would argue it has become the later.  The presence
> of stable democracies in Afganistan and Iraq will go
> a long way towards stabilizing the situation in the
> Middle East.  Yes, the war is not going well at the
> moment; but, to quit now will only confirm the
> world's view of us.  The damage to our credibility
> with our allies might be irrepairable.  The
> terrorists realize how big a defeat it would be to
> have stable democracies in Afganistan and Iraq. 
> That's why they are fighting so hard.
> 
> Originally, I thought a Kerry election would permit
> other nations to join our coalition in Iraq without
> losing face.  Since the debate, both France &
> Germany have been asked that question & both said,
> "Huh, no way?"  No one will follow Kerry's
> leadership when his conviction regarding the mission
> in Iraq is so weak.
> 
> I do not expect the Republicans to lose control of
> congress in this election.  Therefore, Kerry's
> chances of passing his domestic agenda are slim to
> none.  So, as much as I dislike the Bush
> administration's domestic policies, it is a vain
> hope to think a Kerry administration would have any
> significant impact.  More likely, nothing would
> happen.
> 
> So what is it that I expect or want from a Federal
> government?  Well, I guess 1st & foremost I want the
> country to be as safe as possible from attack. 
> Terrorists exploding a nuclear weapon or biological
> weapon in the midst of a large city is a truly
> frightening proposition.  Bush is clearly a better
> choice on this issue.
> 
> The 2nd thing I want is a stable supply of critical
> resources.  Keep in mind the United States uses
> about 50 million barrels of crude oil per day &
> about 50% of that is imported.  This is a staggering
> amount of crude oil, a number so big it's hard to
> come to grips with.  Modern civilization has become
> so interconnected that interuption of this resource
> would be simply devastating.  Think about what
> happened in New York City in July, 2003 during the
> power outage.  That was from just one day of power
> interruption to a major metropolitan area!  A few
> years ago, James Burke did a series of shows that
> aired on PBS and The Learning Channel.  I think the
> television series was called "Connections" and he
> also published a companion book with the same title.
>  In this series, Mr. Burke documents how
> interconnected & intrinsically fragile modern
> civilization has become.  Basically, our
> civilization has become so specialized and
> interconnected that we need to start thinking of
> critical resources like crude oil in the same
> category as air, water, & food.  Those of you that
> live in big cities, just remember your entire
> lifestyle is enabled by a nearly invisible
> technological life support system that is massively
> interconnected, intrinsically vulnerable, and
> totally dependant upon a stable global flow of goods
> and services.  You should be very nervous.  At the
> very least, stop saying things like, "No oil for
> blood!"  Get real people, in modern civilization,
> oil is blood!  We're in a global competition for
> scarce resources.  If we lose this competition;
> then, our population is much too large to be
> supported without these resources & the consequences
> will be real bad.  I would argue this is a really
> good reason to go to war.
> 
> Although the outcome is by no means certain with
> Bush's vision for Iraq, at least there is a chance
> of a good outcome with this president.  I see little
> or no chance for a good outcome in Iraq with Kerry. 
> If we lose the country to a terrorist attack or
> can't get the resources to sustain our civilization,
> the domestic issues have to take a lessor priority. 
> Besides, I don't think Kerry would be able to get
> his domestic agenda passed anyway because of
> congress.
> 
> That's why I've changed my mind & I'm voting for
> Bush/Cheney.
> 
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium   
>   
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help?
> www.rhodes22.org/list
> 



		
_______________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today!
http://vote.yahoo.com