After an exhausting session with Victoria's Secret Police, Scott
Ferrin confessed the following:

I think a more accurate statement would be "accoding to what the media
tells us. . . " and unfortunately we rarely get an objective story it
seems these days.

Geez Scott...the ****ing 9/11 commission confirmed my statements,
they're not Fox News or the vast liberal media conspiritors that
O'Reilly always whines about.

YOu have to ask yourself "why *would* anybody attack the US froces in
Iraq?"

Easy answer...Iraqi citizen says, "Hey America, thanks for getting rid
of that ****ing Saddam Hussein...why are you still here? Leave my
country NOW." Some Iraqi factions maneuvering for power are equally
thankful for getting rid of SH, absent the Baathists and Tikritis.
According to a RAND study, the US "****ed up" (my word) by not having
enough troops/police/civil affairs folks on the ground to ensure
domestic tranquility. Result? Guerilla war as competing factions vie
for power amongst themselves and against the US which they now see as
NOTHING MORE than an occupier that's killing muslims that might or
might not have been Hussein thugs.

Do they want the US to leave? Well attacking our forces
isn't going to speed THAT process up.

You're probably right. Not having a better ratio of US/allied
personnel to Iraqi citizens (according to RAND) will certainly make
this a long slog!

Are you saying those who kidnap Americans and behead them on video aren't terrorists?

Never said that...never even suggested that. You may recall (but
probably don't) that those ****s claimed the original beheading was in
DIRECT RETALIATION for the Abu Ghraib **** storm. Again you and I
don't get to color an Iraqi's perception of what happens or gets
reported on arab TV.

[FWIW, prior to our invasion I think the number of al-qaeda asswipes
in Iraq totaled the square root of negative 1, but NOW there maybe
hundreds or thousands of those ****s in-country...the borders are so
damn porous. Which is NOT to say MaS and his merry band are al-qaeda.]

We're doing lots of great things in Iraq WRT to civil affairs outside
of the Sunni triangle, Najaf, etc. But all those attaboys mean the
square root of **** all to the folks competing for power, or that
simply want us to leave.

There was a great article on 8/15 in the Philly Inquirer about a USMC
outfit in western Iraq written by an imbedded reporter. Lots of
heroism, and lots of deadly combat against well trained, well
coordinated, sharpshooting Iraqi guerillas (the Marines even say so).

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/ you'll have to register then look
for http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/n...9401925.htm?1c
titled The Battle of Rimadi.

They know why we're there, if they chose to fight on the same side as the
terrorists then they'll reap their rewards.

Again you presume to think Iraqis must think like you, and perceive
the occupation of their country by friggin INFIDELS as a good thing.
Jesus ****ing christ Scott...are you really that dense? Sure as
americans, our troops are going to shoot first and sort it out later.
No uniforms and no team jerseys for insurgents or terrorists.
Classifying ALL opposition fighters as terrorists is the zenith of
ignorance.

Let's put it another way:

No look at it this way. Muslims invade America to remove George Bush
(yeah he's an asshole, but he's our asshole) from power, AND they want
to establish a religious form of government. Here it is 18+ months
after they removed george from power, and they're still here. I bet
every bible thumping anti-abortion knucklehead and every ACLU member
would be fighting the occupation of our nation.

Only because he's in the shrine. If he'd been holed up in some
warehouse they'd have just dropped a bomb on it.

Wanna bet? MaS is literally asking the US to make him a martyr (like
some really famous islamic dude) when he isn't saying, "Oh yeah, we'll
leave the shrine and have a cease-fire." If we kill him we are so
****ed. The PR from such an event will not be good.

In marked contrast to what Northern and Southern watch were tying up
over the last ten years?

Dumb question Scott... yes! NW and SW were principally USAF
operations...NO Army Guard or Reserves. There were no ANG units
activated (AFAIK) for two years at a time to support NW/SW.
Containment worked!

The ANG unit at Jackson MS recently switched from 141s to C-17s. They
are not even close to being MR (you know what that means since you
were in the USAF), but they are flying "training sorties" into Iraq
and Afghanistan because there are not enough resources. Guys (read
aircrew) cannot resign from some units because of the "stop loss"
provisions. "Stop Loss" WAS NOT in effect during NW/SW. I was never
notified that I was affected by "Stop Loss" for NW/SW...but was for
Bosnia/Kosovo...guess what?

Better to go in and spend a year or two and put the problem to rest rather than
tying up resources on it for another 30 years.

A year or two? How about ten or twelve?

I encourage you to join the military and get over there to help them
out. I've heard they're looking for volunteers, and you've got the
"right" attitude. Whata-ya-say? Sign up today...