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To: Defiant
Bush should have taken out Syria's regime in 2003 or 2004, and worked to topple Iran from outside ever since. Instead, he has diddled while Iran learned.

What were the political possibilities of doing that at the time, given all the hoops he had to jump through to attack Iraq? It is easy to be an internet Rambo but quite another to get it done.

29 posted on 12/04/2007 11:25:37 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done, needs to be done by the government.)
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To: Mind-numbed Robot
In the early days of the war, convoys of WMD went into Syria. Terrorists came in from Syria, sheltered by Syria, and attacked American troops from the border all the way to Baghdad. After America was so successful, Assad became a very good boy for a while, because he was so scared that America would come after him next. (Around that same time, Qaddafi threw in the towel.)

A few forays into Syria, in hot pursuit of terrorists and those Syrian regulars aiding them, would have shown our resolve. A few bombings of Syrian installations that support the regime would have further cemented the notion. Following that action, reaching out to elements within Syria that are not allied with Iran could have followed. Syria's regime's support is very shallow, and the ruling Allawis could be toppled with a minimal amount of US support.

Iran should have been a major focus of our efforts from 2003. Read Michael Ledeen and all his pleading for the Bush government to take action in Iran, from 9-11 to the present. He is not an internet Rambo, nor am I. I believed then that the Iranian mullahs can be brought down, but it would take an active policy to foment revolution and support those who would do the toppling. We should not go into Iran except to prevent them from having nukes under a mullah regime, and then only to destroy the programs that they have. We can defeat the Iranians if we wish, but at a much higher cost than Iraq, and at the cost of weakening our global reach in places such as east Asia. China is the biggest winner so far in this war on terror.

Don't be a Bush apologist all your life. He's done some good things, but not lately.

32 posted on 12/04/2007 12:51:02 PM PST by Defiant (Huckabee puts the goober back in gubernatorial.)
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