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To: Billthedrill
What possible need would there be for secrecy?

Because Americans don't like wars with American casualties. I have no doubt that support for the war on terrorists will plummet as soon as mass casualties begin. No doubt that our politicians are well aware of that too.

59 posted on 12/03/2001 3:53:53 PM PST by Sandy
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To: Sandy
I disagree. Before, that may have been true. But since September 11, polling data shows that we're willing to accept military casualties and civilian casualties (Afghans). Support has not wavered over reports of civilian casualties, when normally it will.

We will accept casualties if we're winning. If we get bogged down, if we don't achieve our objectives and we have casualties that seem not worth what we're achieving (like in Vietnam), then support will go down. But this is totally different from anything we've faced, except maybe WWII. I couldn't imagine hearing the casualty reports from WWII today. How many thousands of Marines were killed on Okinawa and Iwo Jima? How many were killed early on when it looked like we were losing?

No, unlike Vietnam, Somalia, Desert Storm and Kosovo, we've been attacked here in the U.S. It's different now. We're in it for the long haul this time, I can feel it.

62 posted on 12/03/2001 4:12:01 PM PST by wimpycat
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To: Sandy
"mass casualties"

Just like those bastards to attack a church service!

71 posted on 12/04/2001 8:45:50 AM PST by Redleg Duke
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To: Sandy
Americans don't like wars with American casualties. I have no doubt that support for the war on terrorists will plummet as soon as mass casualties begin.

No. This is not Vietnam, as I've said numerous times. This is not somebody else's war, this is one that was started on our shore and we're 4000 bodies down. Those casualties make this an entirely different matter from any military deployment since World War Two, and I don't think anyone expects us to get out of this as easily as we did in the Gulf War. Moreover, I don't expect "mass casualties" because we don't have a "mass" deployment. Well, not mass American casualties, at least.

74 posted on 12/04/2001 8:54:46 AM PST by Billthedrill
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