Arne, you posted two paragraphs that need to be repeated and repeated for the whiners/moaners/doubters and maybe 5th columnists who want us to lose in Iraq:
Gramps, I just have to believe that all the approaches, options, resources, risks, contingencies and worst-case scenarios involved in the seizure and securing of Baghdad have been meticulously studied and game planned.
The guys with stars on their shoulders strategizing in Qatar weren't recruited from the parking lot of a suburban paint-ball range. They know about Tet, they were grumbling live and real time in VietNam and Beirut, they understand the lessons of Warsaw, Leningrad and Wounded Knee, they lived Mogadishu, they lived Port au Prince and Panama City and the Brits know the lessons of Belfast and understand the dynmaics of the Arab psyche and response to power projections very well.
Arne, right now we have a couple of Freepers who sound like Scott Ritter on the thread below. Maybe you would like to join in for awhile with your common sense and terrible sens of humor that rivals my dark humor!:)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/876803/postsAnd there's another one over there who says the Soviet Union faked their own downfall.