Bob Ackley -> Ed Hulett wrote:
 BA> Replying to a message of Ed Hulett to Bob Ackley:

 EH>> Bob Ackley -> Ed Hulett wrote:
 BA>>> Replying to a message of Ed Hulett to Bob Ackley:

 EH>>>>>>> THEY do. The Serbs, the Albanians, the
Croats, Bosnians, ALL of
 EH>>>>>>> them put it in the perspective of 600
years. We cannot impose
 EH>>>>>>> our will on them and force them to forget
that history, it is in
 EH>>>>>>> their blood.

 BA>>>>> Hmm.  The Shiites and Sunnis in the Middle East
have been going at
 BA>>>>> each other for over a millenium.  Yet we *can*
impose our will on
 BA>>>>> them?  My how things can change in seven years. 
You don't suppose
 BA>>>>> it's just because a Republican administration is running this
 BA>>>>> country, do you?

 EH>>>> Actually, they haven't been going after each other as
much as you'd
 EH>>>> like to think.

 BA>>> SOMEBODY is killing all those people over there.

 EH>> All what people? You mean Hammas and Fatah? Nothing religious about
 EH>> that conflict.

 BA> And neither of those outfits is active in Iraq.

And not all Iraqis are killing each other. The vast majority are trying to
rebuild the country. It is a minority who are killing each other.

 EH>>>> In fact, we intercepted papers from Iranian insurgents
in Iraq that
 EH>>>> show they have been working with terrorists from both the Sunni
 EH>>>> Triangle and the Shi'ites in the south. Remember, the Persians
 EH>>>> (Iran) are Shi'a. The biggest problems Iraq and the other Arab
 EH>>>> countries have with Iran is not a Muslim sect difference, but a
 EH>>>> racial difference Arab v. Persian.

 EH>>>> Besides, we aren't imposing our will on anyone.

 BA>>> We're not?  Our troops were *invited* in to take over the country and
 BA>>> install a new government?

 EH>> Actually, they were invited, but George Bush the Elder didn't accept
 EH>> the invitation. For that, Saddam murdered hundreds of thousands of
 EH>> Shi'ites in the south and Curds in the north.

 BA> Invited by whom?  A bunch of antigovernment rebels?

Would you prefer that Saddam had invited them?

 BA> That's the same thing
 BA> as saying the British were invited in to help the South during the US Civil
 BA> War (which in fact they were, and which fact precipitated Lincoln's famous
 BA> Emancipation Proclamation).

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Your point?

 BA> Somehow I don't think you'd've appreciated the
 BA> intervention of the Royal Navy to break Lincoln's blockade of southern ports
 BA> or the appearance of British Army regulars in the fighting.

What on earth are you trying to say?

We were invited by the Shi'ites and Curds to help oust Saddam. The Brits
were invited by the south to fight against the federal government back
during the "Civil War."

Bush the Elder didn't accept the invitation, unfortunately for the Iraqis.
The Brits very prudently declined the invitation form the CSA, fortunately
for the US.

 EH>>>> We are helping them rebuild their country and government.

 BA>>> Most of which our troops - and/or ten years of embargos - broke.

 EH>> Total, unadulterated nonsense. Saddam broke it with his murderous
 EH>> sons' help.

 BA> AAMOF, Ed, during the runup to and the invasion of Iraq the US Air Force
 BA> deliberately targeted water purification plants, power plants and electrical
 BA> distribution stations and telephone switch facilities.

Wouldn't you do the same?

 BA> They did it a decade
 BA> ago in Serbia, too (just in case you think I'm blaming Bush for it).  25
 BA> years ago, and presumbably continuing to the present, strategic targeting
 BA> people routinely targeted 'infrastructure' targets such as noted
above, plus dams,
 BA> bridges and other similar structures.

That's the strategic thing to do, Bob. If you don't cut off communications
and other infrustructure before an attack, you risk failure.

 BA> I *do* know that they used to do that
 BA> as I used to work in the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff at SAC, but I
 BA> don't *know* that they still do (although, given the actual events of 2002
 BA> and 2003 one can reasonably suspect that they do, or at least did
at that time).

Do you have a point?

 BA> I also *do* know that they did not and am reasonably sure that they do not
 BA> deliberately target schools or hospitals.

Of course the US military doesn't target schools or hospitals. Only
sadistic despots and dictators target schools and hospitals.

Ed

-- 
"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of
virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." -- Thomas
Jefferson

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