[Williams]

We are rationalizing all the reasons why we just "can't" deal with this region of Pakistan. This is the base for Al Queda, which has attacked us many times over. One way or the other we should be eliminating that threat. We are engaged in pre 9-11 thinking on this point. This region is the new Taliban controlled Afghanistan.

Bush's actions plainly do not match his rhetoric.

[SevenMinusOne]

Bottom line is where UBL and Zawahiri have eked out their survival is in a sh*t part of the world and an even sh*tter area to operate in or to bring progress to....(and they know it and choose this area because of such)

Do we need the Pak Gov't to do more? Yes (where they can). But cutting the funding they need to even be adequate at the jobs we need them to do....would serve no benefit to us (in the big picture)....Which the Dem's are calling for today.

The situation sucks. Plain and simple. Though the concept of saying to hell with it....come hell or high-water we're coming in to drag UBL and Zawahiri out is a mindset at times I could really agree with....(though even that doesn't mean we'd catch the SOB in any short time period). Understand Zarqawi survived in Iraq over 3 years while we had a 140,000 + U.S. soldiers on the ground there (and the support of the majority of the people).

We wouldn't have the support of 5% of the people in these border regions of Pak

Most people simply cannot comprehend the brutal terrain within this region. It has every kind of landscape from snow-capped Mtns to desert......Running sustained operations are a nightmare and even then, there are fewer units capable of doing so effectively. All the eyes in the sky modern-day bells and whistles are wonderful....but more often then not they are for d*ck in this part of the world.

HUMINT, HUMINT, HUMINT is the key......How we go about gathering that HUMINT is where there is honest room for debate.