humanities.philosophy.objectivism

"Gordon Sollars" wrote in message
news:MPG.224cfe90ed744a91989a5b@news.killfile.org...
> In article ,
> newsgroups@REMOVETHISnobsysAndThis.net says...
>> "Gordon Sollars" wrote in message

> OK, let's credit the abstract entity known as "Iraq War" with indirectly
> reducing support for aQ in Iraq by means of the actions they decided to
> take. After all, if you manage to drive a nail while you are pounding
> your head against a wall, you might indeed end up with a way to hang a
> picture. ;-)

All militaries would fully identify with your analogy (with a tear in their
eye.)

>
>> As the phrase goes, "no war plan survives
>> first contact with the enemy".
>
> Perhaps, but in this case, our war plan survived first contact very
> well; it was our peace plan that crumbled on contact.

My understanding of our invasion plan's implementation is that we
immediately lost the 4th ID to Turkey, I MEF (my old unit) nearly outran
their supplies racing to cover the 4th's northern objectives. That plus
much lower than expected international support and the unanticipated total
evaporation of the Iraqi Army compounded the difficulty of administration,
tipping Bremer decision (and apparently his decision alone) away from
reforming the armed forces to completely rebuilding them (which I agree
with.) Our absurdly low troop presence for near total social disintegration
among 20 million people combined with Bremer roll-back of Sunni self
government movements perfectly enabled some half baked preparations for a
post war insurgency. Somewhere in the middle of that, aQ poured
everything they could beg, borrow or steal into the mix. That, along with
Bush's inability to integrate the State Department's minimal buy-in with the
rest of the operation is my understanding of the improbable foundation for
any specific viable peace plan .

As much as I'd like to speculate on improvements, time's short and the "IG"
mother in-law is coming for her tri-yearly visit soon.

Good talking to you again Gordon,
Bill