Heck... it took us at least five years to catch [......] I was amazed at how quickly Saddam was actually found.

The territory of Iraq is as big as California, so that's fair. I didn't know when he'd be caught, but I wondered if it might have happened earlier. Like maybe if we went in without the "rolling buildup" decried by so many left-leaning generals and with more than six people who could speak the language.

As far as the "left's" cry for more troops?

As I suggested, it wasn't just "the left" that thought that Rumsfeld was being a cocky jerk. Never mind enough troops to *maybe* find Saddam. How about enough troops to secure key objectives -- maybe prevent the bad guys from grabbing RPGs and such from unsecured dumps?

Well you can thank your pal Bill Clinton

I'm going to resist saying something really hurtful here and will instead just offer this news bulletin:

Bill Clinton is not my pal. Got that?

for scaling back the military so much.

Funny how even some ex-Reaganauts beg to differ . Clinton gets credit where he doesn't deserve (like for "prosperity" in a fatally-flawed bubble economy), so why not just take some *other* credit away?

I think there used to be a "six degrees of kevin Bacon"-type dictum on Usenet about how many posts could be posted in alt.whatever before someone *had* to mention the word "nazi". I am starting to feel that a similar rule exists in any on-line discussion of US politics -- can not go over 114 posts before Clinton/Clintons are mentioned!

It seems to me the left wanted Bush to initiate the draft just so they could have something to beat on him about and try to make the war look more like Vietnam.

And where exactly did you get this idea from??? I don't know what it was like when *you* were drafted, but I didn't like it at all -- wouldn't wish it on anybody. Course, with the long rotations, I am thinking that Reserve and NG re-up rates are not exactly going to reach all-time highs in the next few years, so where does that leave Clinton's all-volunteer force? If Vegas bookies started taking on odds on when the first lottery will occur, I would not be shocked.

No matter how this was handled the "left" would have found something to complain about.

Me? I did not have to look very far! I just *hate* having my president lie to me, fark up relations with just about everyone, neglect important commitments to other countries (remember Afgan....um, how do you spell that?), and put the lives of well-meaning but naive teenagers at risk.

While the performance of the military in the initial conflict really showcased the technical and organizational prowess of today's US military, the mess of the subsequent civilian administration if a broadly acknowledged cruel joke. Oh, and the governing council -- all those disinterested pure patriots who *assured* us there were WMD.

It's a mess. Interesting to hear a medic from an NGO on NPR yesterday. I (very roughly) paraphrase: "Wake up people! I took a woman in an ambulance to the hospital (in Basra, I think he said). During our 30-minute trip we were stopped 3 times at roadblocks/checkpoints manned by heavily-armed Shiite militias. British and Italian troops? None to be seen! You folks aren't looking at what is going to happen next"

You can probably find the audio of this gent on npr.org if you want to gauge the fairness of my paraphrasing. Anyhow, this is from somebody who has actually been there and who saw signs of much factional conflict ahead. Fun, fun. It is *cool* now in Iraq. Next summer? Not so cool. I envy no one there.

With respect to that Soros essay (which I like a lot) and the section of iit that I dropped in another post that includes "The world would benefit from adopting those values, because the American model has demonstrated its superiority." I was amused recently when a friend sent me a copy of "The Scramble for Africa" by Thomas Pakenham wherein the struggles of the various Livingstones to bring Christianity to deprived natives is detailed. I've just started the book, and there's certainly more to it than that, but the parallel to current American we-know-what's-good-for-you righteousness could not be escaped.