[MJY1288]

"Regarding active personnel, we are "tapped out" as defined by being able to do everything we want to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can draft others, of course. I'm talking about what we can use now."

Would you mind backing up this claim? not to mention that the only people clammering for more troops are pundits and media maggots, No request for more troops have come from those running the operation in Iraq

"The money Iraq gets from the UN's oil for food program goes to the Iraqis-- rebuilding schools and power plants and such-- and not to reduce our budget deficit.

The U.N. "Oil for Food" program was eneded months ago

[GraniteStateConservative]

The UN's oil-for-food program was re-started in March, dude. We SOUGHT PERMISSION to immediately end it. The UN gave us the middle finger. Australia, for example, has now sold a total of 1.2 million tons of wheat to Iraq through the program since March. The program doesn't actually end until November.

Whether Rumsfeld says so or not, we don't have the resources to police the borders of Iran and Syria and Saudi Arabia with Iraq and Pakistan with Afghanistan. Surely you don't need convincing of that. We also probably aren't seeking out the thousands of at-large Saddam loyalists, Ba'athist torturers, Republican Guards, and Saddam Fedayeen to the degree we'd like. It's a huge task to de-Baathize the country and we have to use some of our resources for guarding buildings and people and providing humanitarian relief and policing neighborhoods.