[Rhodes22-list] Fwd: Hello from Iraqi Kurdistan!

[Brad Haslett]

Dave,

You win first prize for your ability to sort fly shit from pepper!  Minutia.
You have it that down to a science.

Let's run down the weekly news.  They want to kill the Pope for a quote he
made from *their* book.  They shot a nun four times in the back because she
was guilty of being a nun.  They protested in London (and elsewhere) and
called for the heads of the infidels.

Who are they?  Islamofaciasts!  Get used to the term.  We'll hear it again
and again for, oh, maybe a decade or so.  That doesn't mean you can't sup
with your Muslim friends, I'm assuming you have some.  It just means you
call a spade a spade.

Of course people in Iraq are pissed about their children being killed by
Americans.  People in Israel are pissed about attending weddings and being
blown up by children.  This is nuts!  What part of "we are not dealing with
sane and rational people" do you not get?

I'm an ambivalent agnostic, meaning, I don't give a shit about your not
believing in something, everything, or nothing.  When your PRACTICE of your
religion calls for my beheading, I give a big shit.

Solutions Sir?  Please come up with something more than - PLAY NICE!

Brad




On 9/18/06, DCLewis1 at aol.com <DCLewis1 at aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> Philip,
>
> Thanks for your response, generally I think we're in agreement.  I  gather
> from your reply the 500 lbs found were chem not bio, so it's really not
> a  lot
> on the scale of things.  Also, residuals were found, but I'm not sure  the
> residuals were from an active fabrication process, or whether they date
> from
> their much earlier effort (~ 10 yrs ago) when they were making and
> using  WMD.  I
> didn't know they included Sarin, VX, & mustard, thanks for that  info.
>
> Not to belabor the issue, but do you know whether the 500 lb reported was
> weapons grade chemicals, or was it the weight of the ordnance that
> contained the
> chemical materials and the chemicals?  If they were reporting the full
> weight of the ordnance(rocket or artillery rounds) in the 500 lb, there
> really  is
> little chem agent involved and we'd be talking about just a very
> few  rounds.
> I'm not suggesting anyone pulled a fast one, but if they  discovered the
> material already in ordnance, the easy and safe thing might be to  just
> weigh the
> entire round, that's what I'd do; but that would really  exaggerate the
> importance of the 500 lb claim.
>
> Regarding your statement "there is no doubt he had them", I don't think
> anyone would dispute you.  The important thing to consider however is
> when  did he
> have them prior to our invasion.  If you read the summary of
> the  de-briefs
> in the book Cobra II (and if you believe the de-briefs) his military
> leadership reported he told them well before our invasion ( I think  maybe
> 2 years
> before) that he didn't have any WMD, that he'd gotten rid of  them, but he
> wasn't
> going to tell the world because he had an idea called  "doubtful
> deterrence"
> where if the world, particularly the Iranians, weren't  sure that he
> didn't
> have any, they would leave him alone.  Actually, our  forces were very
> concerned
> about his chem/bio also, so to that extent his  doubtful deterrence
> affected
> us to.  Whatever, it may be right or wrong,  but I expect the debriefs are
> what's going into the historical record unless we  find some WMD, and
> we've been
> looking for a while.
>
> I gather we're in agreement regarding the invasion of Iraq, it was a
> mistake.  The challenge is how to get out alive and with
> some  dignity.  You say the
> top priority is winning, I think our top priority  should be saving the
> lives
> and limbs of American servicemen.  I'm not sure  it's possible to win Iraq
> in
> a conventional sense - if the average Iraqi doesn't  resent us, he should
> be
> close to resenting us.  As per my prior post to  you, if you put yourself
> in
> the position of that Iraqi citizen - not the current  leadership or
> ex-leadership, the average citizen - I think you'll see room
> for  resentment and
> frustration directed to US forces as invaders and  occupiers.  Clearly,
> we've killed a
> lot of Iraqis -and they all have family  - we've destroyed a lot of
> property,
> we've enabled the worst kinds of  lawlessness on a grand scale, we've
> trashed their economy - that's not unique to  us, I expect all military
> invasions
> and occupations evolve along those lines,  especially those that weren't
> well
> thought through.   If you accept my  point regarding frustration and
> resentment
> you can understand why the guerrillas  are succeeding in hiding among the
> population, and why some aggrieved families  might be party to attacks on
> US
> troops.  You might accept that these  insurgent attacks are not the work
> of a few
> residual thugs, as Ed has suggested,  but instead involve a lot of people,
> per
> haps in an uncoordinated way, all across  their country - which may be
> what the
> US military report when they say the  country is on the brink of a civil
> war.
> I suspect what's evolving in  Iraq is a new national sport called "repel
> the
> invaders" - which is the  sport that would quickly evolve here in the US
> if
> another country invaded our  turf regardless of their noble motives (that
> was
> the PRC example in my post to  you).   I think that if the indigenous
> population are intimidated,  ambivalent, or hostile and resentful the
> guerrilla
> movement will succeed -  as it did in Viet Nam - unless the occupiers are
> willing to
> be extraordinarily  violent and brutal to the populace, which we're not.
> This
> assessment of the  situation is substantially different from the
> Administration cheerleaders, but I think it hits the evolving
> record  pretty well.  It
> also highlights why I don't think we're going to "win" in  Iraq in any
> conventional way;  I expect that too many Iraqi's resent  our presence,
> they will host
> the guerrilla opposition, and the few troops we've  brought to bear on the
> problem aren't enough to handle the guerrilla  opposition.  Seems to me
> the surest
> way to "win" in Iraq (i.e. bring  peace to the country) is to declare
> victory
> (i.e. no WMDs) and withdraw  entirely, or withdraw to enclaves, and leave
> Iraq to the Iraqis. It ends  the repel-the-invaders game and the guerrilla
> attacks on our  troops.  I could be wrong.
>
> Re Wilson: I completely agree with your assessment re Wilson's character,
> however I have always regarded the Wilson issue as a sideshow.  I'm
> not  ducking
> the issue, the guy lied and that's serious, but yellow cake in
> Africa  isn't
> high on my list of concerns because it takes years and decades for yellow
> cake in Africa to translate to a nuke - I want to get Al Quaidha  now,
> before
> they do more damage.  Forget Wilson, we agree he's a  turkey.
>
> Regarding $25K to Palestinian bombers - I think, but am not sure,
> that  Syria
> is still on board with that without Iraq.  You might have better  info.
>
> Thanks again for your response and info re the chem agents found, and
> I'd  be
> curious to know whether the 500 lb represented just chemicals, just
> warheads,
> or entire rounds, or a mix of all of the above.
>
> Dave
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