Brian O wrote:

Yeah, its cowardly. But that's the enemy we face. They are too
cowardly to get a regular army and fight. But, as the US learned
with Vietnam, there are ways to deal with gorillas.

Huh? Please, tell me what we learned in Vietnam and how we dealt with
guerrillas. The last newsreels I saw, we left with our tail between our
legs and Saigon aint called Saigon any more. We should have learned that
we *can't* fight people that just melt into the Vietnam jungle or the
Baghdad urban "jungle" with conventional armies.

Time is the only way to get to them.

How much time do you think we need? Before you answer, please keep in
mind that the Shiites and Sunnis have been feuding since about 638 A.D.
Do you really think a year (or even a five year) "surge" will make any
difference? Even if we did have a five year "surge" and went home after
that, what do you think would happen in year six? That after *centuries*
of feuding, they would start to play nice after a lousy, stinkin' 5 year
surge?

It eventually pays off. When they get tired of the killing before we
do, then they will stop. Therefore, we HAVE to persevere, we CANNOT
stop taking the war to them. And that is what we are doing in Iraq.

Just what *are* we doing in Iraq? According to Bush on national TV, "no
WMDs". According to Cheney on national TV, "no 9/11-Iraq connection".
They finally decided the "reason" for the war was that "Saddam was a bad
guy". Well, OK, but Saddam is long gone. About 70% of the American
public now believes it is the wrong war in the wrong country for the
wrong reason.

Troops there are going house to house, every day, putting their lives
on the line, to get these cowards.

Why are they cowards? Just because they don't have B-52s and H-bombs?
They are fighting the only way they can, to defend their country against
what *they* consider to be occupiers, in the wrong country (THEIR
country) for the wrong (or no) reason. (and please, before you jump all
over me, I am just giving you *their* viewpoint. As a reference, please
recall that in the last week or two, al Sadr said to stop killing Iraqi
soldiers and police and concentrate on killing the occupiers).

Finally, if your kid got killed by a "non-cowardly" fighter jet or
machine gun, would he be any less dead than if killed by an IED?

That's something the news doesn't tell you. They want you to think
they are just standing around over there while a car bomber just
drives up and blows them all up. That isn't what's happening. There
is STILL a LOT of fighting going on over there.

No foolin'. I don't know of anyone who doesn't think there isn't a "LOT
of fighting going on over there". Just watch -any- newscast on -any- day
of the week.

That is exactly why the surge in the amount of troops is quelling the
attacks for the most part.

Again, huh? Some of the worst violence *ever* in Baghdad occurred
*after* the surge started (and presumably, the "surge" is mainly in
Baghdad).

They NOW have enough to KEEP troops in place rather than just chase
the cowards from house to house and back to the one they were in
before. Time is the secret. That's why President Bush said this
would be a LONG war.

Again, HOW long do you suggest we "keep the troops in place"??? The
Sunni/Shiite dispute has been going on for *centuries*. What do you
think? 5 years? 10 years? A generation? Would even a generation make any
difference compared to centuries?

Because Americans these days are selfish self
centered dishonest lovers of themselves. When a country gets away
from caring about its country and its people,

You are exactly right! It's all been Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Unfortunately,
this administration has spent little or no time addressing or caring
about *domestic* issues that desperately need attention--less people
having health care, less people having good jobs, more people below the
poverty line since 2000.

Until that changes, countries will fall from
within, and if the US continues down the path of trying to live in
its fantasy utopia, it will fall, hard.

Sadly, I agree with your statement. Where we differ is that I lay most
of the blame at the door step of the current greedy administration--do
*everything* for big business like Big Oil, Haliburton and the
Pharmaceuticals but let the old people in this country decide if they
are going to buy their medicine or buy dog food for dinner. As you so
aptly put it, "they have gotten away from caring about their people".