Replies

One does not, indeed cannot, simply forget or ignore his life's work and the learning and experience that came with it. My adult life from age 23 to 55 was spent doing those things that deal with the operational, planning and analysis of combat operations and geopolitical relations. Thus, yes, I am now an arm-chair general but with a sufficient background, training and experience to know something about which I opine. Accept it, reject it, ignore it or contradict it with an alternative, I really don't give a tinker's damn. The reality is that the observation is: (1) not mine alone but is an accepted conventional analysis of other of similar background and experience; (2) too obvious to be denied by all but the most ideologically fervent who are willing to accept whatever their favorite administration official tells them; and,(3) demonstrates the lesson of Groucho Marx as he challenged his wife when she caught him in flagranto delicto with another women in bed. He infamously asked the question that many ardent admirers of the president and Rumsfeld have already answered for themselves: ''Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?'' As with an ever decreasing few, you have apparently chosen not to believe your eyes, common sense and other sensory perceptors.