From:
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 22:44:52 GMT

Iran yes, Israel no. I was saying, (somewhat akwardly) that Iran and other
countries like it, need to recognize Israel's right to exist.

I misunderstood what you were saying Israel. Going into Iran
without direct provocation runs counter to how you say you think force
should be used.

Canada has a lawfully elected government and their people have the right to
change the government. The others listed above would be doing the world a
favor if they would adopt a system that insured the rights of all their
citizens.

I was kidding about Canada and the UK. I thought that was obvious.

Our military is stretched to the limit,

No, it's not.

Um, yes it is. We've had to pull a brigade out of South Korea in order
to support Iraq. Over 50% of the troops in Iraq are reservists. They're
rotating in some cases on an annual basis. Much of the equipment in
Iraq is in dire need of depot-level maintenance or replacement after
years of hard duty in extreme conditions. Recruiting is down and has
been for the past two years, but by paying large reenlistment bonuses
the negative effect of that has been somewhat postponed. The military
has been calling in people who retired, in some cases many years ago.
We are in no position to edpand military efforts anywhere. The National
Guard in the Gulf states could not respond to the emergency of Katrina,
one of the National Guard's prime duties. How can you possibly say the
military is not stretched?

Kerry proposed forming two more Army divisions, which based on today's reality, made a lot of
sense.

What reality is that?

That our military, whether you admit it or not, is straining to meet
its current obligations. More soldiers, particularly of the type
advocated by Kerry (Special Forces, i.e. Green Berets, whose primary
function is to do things like train native forces to deal with security
and combat operations (sound familiar?) and combat support, whose
primary mission is to rebuild infrastructure and provide logistics
(like electricity, fuel, roads, water. Sound familiar?) would reduce
the strain that infantry, armor, military police, etc. are going
through in trying to perform like missions.

You probably realize the US military was in Bosnia for almost 10 years,
and we were invited there.

Yes, and I remember Clnton's lies about how long we would be there.

You can remember something Clintion said 10 years ago, but have
apparently already forgotten how we would be 'received with open arms
in Iraq because the people want us to overthrow Saddam and and our
tanks will roll through Baghdad on a carpet of rose petals' (or
whatever the exact wording by Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld was...)

One answer (Kerry's, actually) was to look at the root causes, the
second, third, and fourth order effects of our foreign policy and try
to form world consensus.

One of the reasons he lost the election. The U.S. doesn't need or want the
consenus of a bunch of 2 bit dictators and tyrants that make up much of the
governments around the world. Our condern should be our own safety.

So Germany and France and ALL the other countries who didn't believe
the intelligence we tried to sell them are run by '2 bit dictators and
tyrants' while WE are the sole fountain of Truth. Bull****. I think
they look pretty smart about now.

Another (Bush's, Cheney's and Rumsfeld's,
actually) was to tell the world to get ****ed and to be rootin-tootin
cowboys, and then hand the keys to the vault to Halliburton.

Well said. A lie but well said.

Interesting. You AGREE with that statement above. Here, let me remind
you: "One of the reasons he lost the election. The U.S. doesn't need
or want the consenus of a bunch of 2 bit dictators and tyrants that
make up much of the governments around the world. Our condern should
be our own safety." In other words, get ****ed. We're gonna 'John
Wayne' it. LOL!

How many tinhorn ****head countries are i the U.N.? Why is it they can't
seem to do anything of their own succesfully? When are they going to go
after any of the countries you listed above?
The U.N. is worse than useless, it has become an obstacle.

It has perhaps become an obstacle to OUR foreign policy. That COULD be
because OUR foreign policy is not in EVERYONE'S best interests. Do you
have any idea how many places the UN is, with troops, at any given
time? They go to very many places we do not. You should look it up
sometime. Now some of those places are places WE don't care about in
OUR foreign policy.

Just because the UN is in New York does not mean we own it, or that
they are beholden to our foreign policy aims.

So aside from hand-wringing and wishful thinking about Utopia, what
exactly do you propose?

Isolation. We don't really need most of the countries in the world, at
least not nearly as much as we need them. Allow Americans to pump the oil
we have here and tell the Arabs to get on the freedom train or get ****ed.
Without oil their countries would be back in the 5th Century.

Without alternative fuels, there is no possible way we can domestically
meet our current requirements for oil. That plan would also require the
cooperation of all those 'tinhorn' countries, like China and all of
Europe. Otherwise, they just sell oil elsewhere. But we don't need
cooperation. I forgot.

Although we may not have to,
because it appears likely that gobs of the self-righteous corrupt
crooks will be going to jail pretty soon anyway.

Doubtful. Delay will walk, since he has broken now laws and is simply the
victim of a headline seeking DA. Who else is trouble? I haven't been paying close attention lately.

We'll see, as DeLay is now getting caught up in the Ambramoff deal too.
Frist has pending financial issues. Cunningham is already gone. Aside
from DeLay, 15 other republicans look like they might be in trouble,
and Abramoff hasn't even started talking yet.