As far as I can tell it exists because GWBush cannot handle many (any?) American combat deaths and still get re-elected.
"As far as I can tell it exists because GWBush cannot handle many (any?) American combat deaths and still get re-elected."
My take on this is different....it is because the US cannot take decisive action against civilian areas due to the media's complete opposition to US policy in iraq and its willingness to show the most inflamatory images to the world, and as a corrolary the US unwillingness to suffer the consequences of such images being publicized.
We could make Fallujah disappear in less time than it takes to think about it. GW and the US are walking a fine line in Iraq, trying to help them establish some kind of working democracy. Getting maniac mullahs to go along with the program is dicey, but we're giving it a shot. Unfortunately, their followers have the collective i.q. of a bunch of thirteen year olds on crack. They're manipulated from cradle to grave by a murderous religion and have no life, no decent jobs, no hope. They're told their miserable condition is America's fault and their only reason for breathing is to get even.
Try living with a couple of so-called normal teenagers. They drive you crazy. We're dealing with a nation of teenagers in Iraq. The number of books published in the Middle East is what, two a year? They have no other source for news and reality than the mullah in the mosque or Al Jazeera, which, I'm delighted to see on Fox tonight, is being shut down by Baghdad for longer than just one month.
For Bush and the U.S., the alternative to patience and pinpoint bombing is dropping the hammer, big time and it may come to that. We may run out of time and patience, not because America is inherently impatient...although we are...but if terrorists hit us again, a school or worse, then Bush won't have the luxury of patience.
Foxnews tonight: continuing violence in Baghdad while Iraq struggles to elect some form of govt..A police station hit, American helicopter fired on, landing, killing two enemy fighters. Every other day some form of guerrilla violence fueled by foreign terrorists. What we should do is close Iraq's borders and take care of Syria and Iran, which is on Bush's list of things to do asap upon reelection...or earlier if events dictate. Easy for me to say. Still, it has to be done. If Iran goes nuclear...Israel won't allow that and has informed us pointedly. So we'll have to take care of Iran.