>John:
>
>You and I have quite different views on this subject.
>
>History shows that some of the wars that the US has fought have not done the world a lot of good. I agree with WW I and II and the First Gulf War but I do not agree with Viet Nam or the current Gulf War. Neither of these Wars have brought peace.
>
>A War against terrorists is very hard to fight. You can't use traditional military war against terrorists. The Talaban pretty much control Afghanistan. And the non-Taliban areas are producing more opium than ever.
>
>You have to find these guys through intelligence and co-operation. I am guessing that there are government officials in the Middle East who know where Osama is. If they could see your values, they would probably help you apprehend him. But it isn't just Osama, you have to get the terrorists in 65 different countries to go home and back to their regular lives. You could try to build commando teams and intelligence teams to scour the world and try to find these guys a la James Bond. But you are going to spend a lot of cash and probably have a lot of failures (deaths) along the way.
>
>All the time you are doing this, the people at the Peace Conferences are not co-operating because they don't like your approach to their brothers.
>
>My preduction is that the US will lose another 1000 men (boys) in Iraq and eventually leave in about 10 years. At that time the country will either have had a major Civil War and broken apart (South - Shiites, Middle - Sunni and North - Kurds) or the Tribal Leaders will have taken over their 50 different areas.
>
>You may have a hope of a gleaming country with peaceful elections every 4 years with the people supporting the elected leaders and a proper businesslike economy with a benevolent government showering the people with health, education and prosperity. If this happens then you are right and I am wrong.
>
>Lets mark the date on our calendar and we will compare notes. <g>


Well, I think it depends on the hopes and desires of the people of Iraq. If they are left alone, without support, they will go back to a dictatorial style of government. If we are there to provide support, as well as England and hopefully other countries, I believe they have a chance. If they choose to revert, we will have more problems. As the saying goes, "the future lies ahead."