>>>>>>>>>http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-vows-revenge-after-al-qaida-beheads-aid-worker-michel-germaneau/19568739?test=latestnews
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I wish the French well. DGSE knows how to play rough and this a part of the world where they are very much at home.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Imagine if a recent U.S. president (I won't mention the obvious) had actually used the word revenge...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Still, that story is truly tragic and a perfect example of how utterly crazy extremists are and what would be left for those in two countries if we just picked up and left as some here think should be done.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>You know in the end you're going to leave and so are we. And the net benefit of all the deaths and the money spent will be pretty near zero.
>>>>>
>>>>>On this I fear you may be right.
>>>>
>>>>There is precedent for long-term US involvement overseas - South Korea, to name one.
>>>
>>>Yeah, but they have a government and a country.
>>
>>They do now... but the place was a mess in '53 and ruled for most of the next 30+ years by military strongmen. It would have been easy for an observer back then to predict the US would get "mired" there - and they would have been right - but the long-term outcome was fairly positive.
>>
>>>I do think we are at Baghram to stay and maybe a few other places and I'm sure there are some deals in Iraq that are long term. But it is a different model that Korea.
>>
>>I think there will be Western presence in Iraq and Afghanistan as long as there is Islamic extremism there. Everyone in the West wants the battles between ideologies to happen over there, not here.
>
>Too late or that one. Aminadinnerjacket says he has 40,000 agents in the states.

That was probably a conservative estimate so the U.S. wouldn't panic... :o)