Posted on 03/11/2003 5:36:24 PM PST by grimalkin
You forgot the 'game is over' in this recap. I fear that GW is doing serious damage to his credibility and 2004 prospects by delaying any longer......
I agree 100%. Every day we wait further compromises our position and makes it look like we, like the UN, are unwilling to enforce the mandates of the numerous UN resolutions, not to mention a wishy-washy commitment to dealing with the threats to our security.
Poor Tony Blair has gone wobbly on us. Others are backing away more and more. When we are finally down to it being only the USA, we will have problems after the fact that we could have avoided by having the air war already underway.
I hope I am wrong, but I fear Dubya was (is) playing high stakes poker with Sadaam and was depending on Sadaam folding under Bush's bluff(?). Unfortunately, Sadaam has always been successful in calling other's bluffs. I am beginning to wonder if Dubya can/will really "pull the trigger."
Just after 9/11 Dubya said "...an soon they will hear from us" when speaking of ALL TERRORISTS and those who harbor and support them. I'm still waiting, optimistically, and hopefully, but I'm loosing the faith...
For more on why we need to do this, from an unexpected source (no friend of Bush or of conservatives), check out the Iraq section of "Frontline" at of all things PBS. More Americans should read that web page. There isn't a lot of doubt.
Woolsey puts it especially well. Alliances are for serving US national security interests -- not the other way around. Richard Butler also presents a good case.
Look, that particular three front war is pretty easy.
We can have my mother go over to France with a baseball bat, and the French will surrender to her.
The troops are just about in place to take Iraq now.
FReepers can take the UN.
Now that's statesmanship the French will understand.
Do you also remember Bush's promise that this war will be fought on many levels, some obvious, some unseen, that it will be long, but that we will not falter and we will not fail?
I, along with most veterans I know,am glad he gave the diplomats every opportunity to step up to the plate.He has.They didnt.Gametime is over.
I am as antsy as anyone else on this site for the "balloon to go up" in Iraq, and our troops to come back home ASAP.It is not going to be that simple, and the margin for error is large.
Whatever Bush/Cheney/Powell/Rice & Rumsfield are waiting for, I am truly thankfull for the first time in over XX# of years that I am not privvy to any inside information.I can still sleep at night, go to work each day, and simulate normal life fairly effectively.
War is not a made for TV spectacle,and while I fully support the next phase,I am not looking forward to it with any joy, and I doubt the onset will satisfy any of us for long.It is just the next step on the road to eventual peace and freedom from foreign state sponcored terrorist tactics.
Chill, and remain extremely cautious while travelling through the fog of war.(I wish I would consistantly follow my own advise! LOL!)
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