We obviously have far, far different perspectives on this. The heading on the New Yorker article last week, "How Donald Rumsfeld's failure to understand the insurgency has prevented the military from getting it right in Iraq", sums it up.

Have you ever watched a basketball game where Team A has an outstanding center. So the other teams strategy is to collapse on the center. But they forgot the team also has a guard who could be deadly from 3 pt range. If the guard gets hot and they stick with their strategy of collapsing on the center, there's a good chance that Team A could have a lead. And if the guard stays hot, the lead could grow. Team B's likelyhood of winning is dependent on their coach being flexible enough to see that they need to change their defense to account for the guard.

Our govt has placed us in a situation where because they went in with a flawed strategy from the getgo, there were major problems. And, I'm not sure why, but they are also extemely inflexible. So they refuse to acknowledge their failures. And as the situation gets worse, they refuse to change their strategy.



>Maybe you read too much into everything? The reason my arguments appear simple is because they're not "arguments"... they're facts. I refuse to get caught up in the speculation. No one knows how this will end. So instead of playing the political blame game and pretending as if one side is more "correct" than the other, I stick with the basics... yes, it's horrible what they're going through. So was what happened during our revolution and the USSR's and every other revolution I've heard of.
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>And these questions you pose are examples of what I'm talking about... who in their right mind would attempt to speculate on when "things will turn around?" Too many variables. We can't even accurately predict when our country will "turn things around."
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>And "is it worth it?" You've got to be kidding me. Hindsight, not I, will answer that. Until then, it's all just crystal ball gazing, political posturing (hand wringing or flag waving), and navel gazing... all grand wastes of time. The end result may not be what was intended, but I've noticed that freedom always seems to win out... so that's the side I'm choosing. Coincidentally, it's also the side I'm rooting for.
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>>I have to admit. The one thing your arguments have going for them is they are by far the most simplistic view of the world I've ever heard.
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>>When do you see things turning around in Iraq? And you truly think that all the deaths and destruction that is going to occur between now and then is worth it?