[Pylot]

What you and the conservative talk show people are missing is the fact that our military is totally un prepared to fight a war with Iraq or anyone else at this time. Why do you think that the majority of our Reserve forces are on active duty today??

Our little fight in Afganistan was the last we had left.

Thanks to Clinton and eight years of social programs and money transfers away from the military and defense. Our ships are way out of maintenance. Our aircraft are long undermaintenanced. Our Army is poorly provisioned. Our sheer numbers of trained personel are very low. We need 150 to 200 thousand well trained and well supplied troops to take out Iraq by ourselves.

Bush needs to do two things.

One - Get a House and Senate majority in his party. Critical for him and the nation. Until then he is giving nothing to the Dimocrats and he is taking everything away from them in the process.

Two - Rebuild our military to fight a full blown war on at least two fronts simultaneously. He has to do this assuming he will have little to no help from our allies in taking out Iraq. Our only viable option in war today is to go right to nuclear weapons. Not necessary with a little time and a lot of money.

Nobody seems to see this, especially the radio talk show people. Everyone wants him to stand up and thump his chest. Why put your enemy on notice that you are going to make war on him? This ain't the movies. If you believe the posturing, the nonsense with our fliping and floping on Israel then Bush is doing a good job. Powell is a perfect foil. Bush the second is one sneaky fellow.

Bush the second will avenge his fathers mistake. Bush the second is going to put us into a war that will require the draft and every spare dime we can print. But that war won't begin for another year.

You read it here first.

[america-rules]

What the chest thumpers don't think agout is what kind of proof do we have Iraq is behind terrorism? I wouldn't doubt that they are but for every "Breaking News" story on this it turns to piss after the details come out. Headline grabbers may think saddam is behind terrorism but without some proof Bush can't go to the world and UN and say we're gonna take him out. Most Americans would probably go along with it because they trush Bush but the world wouldn't. We didn't give a rats butt what the world thought taking out the taliban because there was ebough proof - But Iraq?

They haven't made it public if it's there?

[spetznaz]

You are so correct that i find it hard to even add one iota to your comprehensive message. The US military machine was engineered to be able to face two strong foes in separate theaters, and having done so to win. However right now i do not believe that it can even face one strong foe that is dug in, and do so efficiently. Most probably victory would still be ours, however the toll in American lives would be phenomenal.

And as you said the progression fo this sad state of affairs with the military could lead to the draft. Although IMHO what will happen is that some nation shall decide to challenge US interests sometime in the future, and the US military shall not be ready to handle it. And since the use of nukes would be hard to justify, and conventional means would be stretched and worn thin due to years of cutbacks and sitting on hands, then a real problem would arrise.

A good example is if China decided to attack Taiwan. And this is a bigger issue than any war with Iraq.

What would happen then?

[jeremiah]

You don't know what you are talking about. If Bush has to wait until he has a majority in the Senate and the House, he cannot have the military ready for two more years. He has the approval ratings, he has control of the purse,(House), if he doesn't do anything about the weakened military in the months following a direct attack on our soil, he is a worthless as the stuff stuck to my shoes, after visiting the fair.l