"George Z. Bush" wrote:

Stephen Harding wrote:
"George Z. Bush" wrote:

Well, aren't you the latter day Nostradamus! My crystal ball is cloudy and
my cleaning cloth hasn't come back from the cleaners yet, so I think I'll
pass on the predicting-the-future business other than to comment in passing
that your guess is as good as mine, or vice versa.

Don't really need a crystal ball do you George?

You having a problem with my English? You don't understand what "I think I'll
pass..." means?

Working hard at being confrontational it seems.

Don't see anything wrong with my reading of what you wrote. Do you understand
what you wrote?

We know what happens when one doesn't stand up to tyranny. We know what
happens when failure in will (usually always for very good reasons), allows
darkness to prevail. I think even you'll agree Saddam and Osama are on the
side of darkness. Removal from Lebanon and Somalia only encouraged the OBL
crowd. Don't think for a minute they can not win in Iraq. The odds are in
their favor.

Spoken like a true simplistic idealogue. Everything's black and
white.....everything's so easy to figure out. Sure it is.....and that's why
they having parades for their conquering heroes in Baghdad every day. Sure it
is!

We can add complexity to the point we no longer can tell anything. Your choice.
You think there are shades of complexity coming from the Taliban? From the
Baathists? From the generic Arab world?

You'd better figure out what is black and white and toss the gray or you'll
be living by someone else's definition of it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm neo-isolationist at heart. I don't think the US
should ever have been in Lebanon or Somalia, despite honest reasons.

I don't think the US should be in Kosovo or Bosnia, despite images of
massacred farmers or urbanites of the wrong ethnic persuasion.

But we were there! And once there, to be run out can only be bad. Now,
like it or not, we're in Iraq, for actually quite fair reasons IMHO.

You were on a roll until you stated our reasons for being there were quite fair.
But, you're entitled to your opinion.

Well your open-mindedness spilleth over.

So what's it going to be?

I don't think you need to be a modern day Nostradamus to see any trends
here do you?

Surely you wouldn't believe what I might have to say, so why don't you enlighten
us with your perceived wisdom?

You've already stated your poor opinion of my wisdom. Saying anything more is a
waste of typing muscles.


SMH