[The Great Satan]

Indeed. This is chess, not checkers. The king (Saddam: King of Terror) may not be very mobile, but he is the best defended piece on the board. You can't take out the king directly. First, you take out his pawns: bin Laden, al-Qaeda. Then, you go for his knights and bishops (Arafag, the euro-weenies), his castles and his queen (the UN, Kofi Annan). You don't go straight to the end game. You've got to think several moves ahead to figure out what's going on.

[bonfire]

There's a thread that needs you:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/845723/posts


Help them please!

[Fred Mertz]

I've been following this thread and holding my tongue because I'm not sure what's going to happen.

You, on the other hand, are predictable. You do your best work after 1 a.m. Eastern. Thanks for the flag.

[patriciaruth]

Interesting explanation of your view of the game.

It would make a great movie or book. But I think the real world is messier than chess, and so I still think I am going to win our bet.

[patriciaruth]

In explaining how Arafat was marginalized, you not only have to mention that Bush wouldn't meet him due to his antipathy for him and Sharon has systematically killed a lot of his shadow minions and destroyed his compound and hence his operation, but....

You have to mention that the Israelis were tired of being bashed on CNN regularly and threatened to ban CNN from the country while letting FOX News Network in. After that scare, the news media in general stopped making every Israeli reaction to Palestinian terror attacks a nonstop news event complete with overlay of horror and sympathy on behalf of the Palestinians.

I think this racheting down of the news coverage also had an effect on marginalizing Arafat.