Here's a sample of what you would have to keep up with.......
Let me enlighten you. Or at least try...
Rumsfeld also knew. So did many many many cultural advisors in Washington. And so did the military planners. There was no secret amongst those, who look beyond Television for some wisdom of the world they live in, that the deep hatreds of Muslims within the Middle East only needs to taste a bit of freedom to express great violence against each other. This is why a "living" plan to rid the region of Saddam Hussein had existed since 1992. There was a detailed plan to ease Iraq away from the noose of the dictator and towards a democracy with careful consideration that this population would need a solid occupation plan.
This plan (CENTCOM plan) was dismissed in the fall of 2002 by the Rumsfeld coven. The SECDEF's minions decided that this plan, which had been worked on, revised, and updated continuously for a decade was "stale" out dated. Instead, the Rumsfeld coven decided to go with the "no plan" and roll the dice. And since you probably will draw wrong conclusions from this as well, I'll enlighten you further....
The reason the Rumsfeld Coven went against our military planners was because our plan detailed the need for much more troops and a clear understanding of economic necessity and occupation time. This did not sit well in Washington, because people (like yourselves) expect their wars (which others fight) to be like drive-byes (Gulf War). They want neat little packages with a pretty ribbon on top. And with the military plan to correctly take out the dictator and occupy Iraq, which showed considerable complication, people would not have bought off on the whole affair.
Therefore, the "solid physical living plan" was cast out in favor of the "no plan." The trip to Baghdad looked good because our military reacted to everything that went wrong with precision. In other words, what you saw on your television was your military making the flawed Rumsfeld attack plan look good. But once we got to Baghdad, the "no plan" took shape and U.S. Marines were without any real mission. The Army soldiers that finally made contact and relieved the Marines for occupation duties had no real mission or plan. It was all a matter of hip pocket reaction. Every rule of "Occupation 101" was ignored in favor of political correctness. Martial Law was denied because our politicians didn't want the media to be able to brand this effort as "inhumane." (I wonder if they thought about what was really inhumane after Muslims started slaughtering each other.) In the end, Iraq would not have been the mess that it was if they only followed the military plan that outlined the need for far more troops and allowed us to do our jobs by following historically proven rules of occupation.
For twelve years, we had babysat this prick for the UN. For twelve years we pretended that the Cold War was still lingering and that we could keep getting away with maintaining "stability" for an entire region by keeping the brutes in their thrones. For twelve years we escalated our military numbers to meet every situation where Hussein maneuvered his troops towards borders to get a reaction. For twelve years we had boots in and out of Iraq to deal with the humanitarian disasters Hussein created as he defied the UN. For twelve years the UN and the international western community agreed that it was OK for an entire society to rot under the corrupt oil-for-food scandals just so long as the oil kept flowing. And in 2002, Hussein was taking advantage of the Afghanistan effort by flying military jets over Saudi and Jordanian air space just play more games with the great and powerful nation that allowed the UN to control it.
And in the mean time, men like Bin Laden observe everything that goes wrong in their region. They don't care that America saved countless Muslims in the Balkans. They don't care that hundreds of millions of Muslims in the region were spared the oppression and religious persecution of Muslims in the Caucasus (by the Soviet Union) because America won over the influence in the Middle East during the Cold War. And they certainly don't care that Muslims thrive in America more than any other nation. In the end, anything that can be blamed on outside sources is going to be blamed on America. So when millions of Muslims are starving and their children are dying under UN prescriptions via American muscle it becomes America's fault. When that dictator challenges that muscle over and over again and causes the escalation of troops in the heart land of Islam, it becomes America's fault. And when something like 9/11 happens and a mad man chooses to place these things in his letter (to people like you) it becomes very clear that ridding ourselves of this obligation and setting the region of terror on a different path is probably in our best interest.
A person complaining about sovereignty as an excuse to do nothing is laughable considering that we dictated his comings and goings for twelve years anyway. People who clung to Bin Laden's letter as if it described clear proof why we deserved 9/11 quickly glossed over the Iraq part of it leading to the conclusion that laughing at America was the real goal of our critics (some call them allies). People who cried "no war for oil" proved to be the most vile, wretched, most decrepit souls in the West considering that virtually everything they own is an oil product and that somehow "starving children for oil while looking away" was acceptable. And here we see the other side of the oil complaint from you that were all about invading for oil, but are now disenchanted because his gas went up as if someone of status somewhere actually stated that this is a war for cheap gasoline.
In the end, the ignorance of people lead me to conclude that our nation would be completely and totally lost were it not for the very extreme few politicians that have their fingers on the pulse of the world and our military who actively participate in it. We have enemies. And they prefer to blame us for everything that goes wrong in their civilization rather than accept cultural responsibility for their own creations. We don't deny education. We don't prescribe tribal rage and hate. We didn't slash lines across tribes creating the zoo that is the Middle East. But here we have even Americans more than willing to blame the slaughter between Muslims on America.
Why don't we just give up? I mean if we are willing to give our enemies validation by agreeing that Americans can be blamed for everything they fail at, what is the point of the struggle? After centuries of slaughtering themselves and after the last sixty years where Muslims have fought no fewer than "19" open wars against each other on ethnic slaughter campaigns, America gets to be blamed for not maintaining the dictator any longer. We are criticized for using the dictators during the Cold War to maintain stability in this upside down European made civilization, but expected to be criticized for finally heading in the other direction too?
I detest knowing that my sweat and blood is for people like you. I like to think that you are a minority. But the truth is that more and more Americans are getting used to not knowing what television doesn't tell them. That more and more look for their favorite commentators to tell them about military affairs. That more and more Americans are becoming more and more ignorant and allowing reporters to dictate military procedures by ignoring any sense of integrity on the battlefield and portraying every situation with exaggeration and lies.
In the end, you get your wisdom from people who have never served and have no idea what is really going on outside the comfort of the American Disney Land.
