Replies

In every war, there are always two stages to the victory...the pitched battle and the aftermath.

Here's the absolute truth about the much maligned carrier landing. The President had an absolute right to do it and the sailors on board loved it and him for doing it. Ditto for the Thanksgiving day surprise in Baghdad. Stroll up to an ABE or ABH on that ship and make a snide comment about their "mission accomplished" being a charade to them and see what it gets you.

For thousands of years the military victory was followed by rape, pillage, and apparently if you really pissed the Romans off, salt being plowed into your fields.

We've come a long way since then (despite Alberta's tired "let's just incinerate 25M" garbage) but humane treatment of the losers, while clearly the right thing to do, is often much more difficult.

But make no mistake this war is a victory (tanks in the losers capital and their leader in jail is a pretty good indicator) and will be a victory. We are NOT the Spanish. No doubt, measures need to be taken to avoid more of today's losses but I also have no doubt that they will be made and we will prevail. The only thing that will prevent this is going weak kneed for fear of offending anyone with the measures we take to protect ourselves and the people of Iraq.

My "let's just incinerate 25 million Iraqis" comment was intended to be sarcastic -- I should have been more clear about that.

But make no mistake this war is a victory (tanks in the losers capital and their leader in jail is a pretty good indicator) and will be a victory. We are NOT the Spanish. No doubt, measures need to be taken to avoid more of today's losses but I also have no doubt that they will be made and we will prevail. The only thing that will prevent this is going weak kneed for fear of offending anyone with the measures we take to protect ourselves and the people of Iraq.

You seem to overestimate the attention span of the U.S. public. This administration can't possibly lay the groundwork for a long-term solution in Iraq -- because we have no idea if this administration is going to be around to see it to fruition (how soon we forget that George H. W. Bush was on the unemployment line so soon after "victory" in Gulf War I). Make no mistake about it -- this administration made a gross miscalculation in this war. The timing of the war was purely political -- they really expected to have everything cleaned up (at least insofar as that would be possible) before the situation in Iraq could become a political issue in this campaign.