Subj : The War Has No Clothes
To   : Angus McLeod
From : Frank Reid
Date : Sat Oct 08 2005 10:01 pm

  Re: The War Has No Clothes
  By: Angus McLeod to Frank Reid on Sat Oct 08 2005 21:41:00

 > You asked a question of me and I ask one of you now:  How long do you
 > think that the USA will have to maintain military forces in Iraq, before
 > it will be safe for them to leave and not precipitate by their absence, an
 > anti-Sunni bloodbath perpetrated by the fundamentalists, aided and abetted
 > by the security forces you are currently making so much effort to train
 > and arm?

Again, a well researched and presented response.  We must agree to differ on
that very significant point -- that the individual is not just the sum total of
the society in which he lives, but rather the impetus for that society.  I am
an optimist, as you can gather, and I also base that on my experience and
history.  After all is said and done, that simple point of disagreement will
determine the outcome of this (and, quite feasibly, the entire future of our
existence).

To answer your question, I wish I knew, but it's impossible to know how long
stabilization will take.  I do know we have friends, in both the Sunni and Shia
communities, who want to see this work.  We also have detractors, both natives
and foreign, who are bent on disrupting that process.  What I can say with a
high degree of certainty, only because I read it just like everyone else, is
that our president is resolute in keeping an American presence in place to
oversee this metamorphosis.  And, as you may also have guessed, I support that
decision wholeheartedly.

---
 þ Synchronet þ BBS Doors (www.bbsdoors.com)

.