>SNIP
>>
>>It appears to me you are speaking authoritatively about a subject you apparently know little about. I respect your intelligence and certainly defer to you in many technical matters, but your pronouncements about motives and power balances within the American government are strictly opinions - man on the street opinion. You are entitled to them, but they carry no weight.
>
>Here I go again, Charles...
>Do your opinions carry more weight, and if so, why?
>
>Jim

Only in that I get information from sources other than Michael Moore <g> and CBS and have probably spent as much time studying this particular topic and working in related areas as Walter has in technical areas. ( Remember I'm an old guy and had a life before computers <s> ) When Walter talks about GBW's getting into Harvard ( which was indeed a school of legacy rich kids in '62 )only because his father was president (GHWB was a very unimportant congressman at the time and most of GWBs classmates had daddies a lot more important than that) where his SATs and grades were as good as Gore's, and of his grandfather being a governor ( Prescott Bush was in fact a Senator - never as powerful as Al Gore's father ) etc I know he is speaking from talking points and not from a knowledge of history. It is like talking about the death of Foxpro because the kid at Radio Shack whose cousin knew some VB said so.

That being said, mine are just opinions as well, but I do try to stay away from sloganeering, and my opinions come from actually having read most of the major stuff on the Islamic world, having lived a worked in Moslem countries and having training in this area. My academic background is in history, not technology, and this is the area that was the passion, and the focus, of my youth. I didn't just start thinking about this stuff when it hit the headlines and some of the players were my friends when we were all very young and believed a hundred impossible things before breakfast.

I don't think Kerry is the devil and I am sure the Republic would survive a Kerry presidency. In some ways I am sure I would be happier. I am in many ways more sympathic to Kerry's positions. I am disturbed that he may bend to pressure from his own supporters and make appointments that would not be in the national interest. Jimmy Carter appointed Stansfield Turner. Bill Clinton appointed Frank Deutch. I know very well the ramifications of those very bad choices.

I think the people who will be most disappointed with a Kerry victory are the 80% or so of Kerry supporters who think he's just kidding about the get tough on terrorist stuff. The MoveOn.Org people are going to be livid when they see Kerry dealing with the realities of the presidency.

If Kerry is elected, sometime before the end of November he is going to get The Briefing. He's a very smart man. He is going to look at the world as it is and, please God, he is going to do what needs to be done.

And married, gay, special forces whose kids have great health care are going to be wreaking vengance and justice on islamo-fascism for years to come <s>

The ash-heap of history is littered with corpses of posturing monsters who really thought we were too soft.