OT: How the real war is fought

Nah...that's not true. I just believe in going after it in the right place(s). Why do you suppose we sent the CIA into Afghanistan within weeks of 9/11, followed by troops, but them pretty much abandoned the effort and put the bulk of our resources in Iraq?

Do you have any idea what kind of pressure we could have put on Saddam from right next door, and how we could've provided covert aid to people in his country who wanted to dump him? Or, do you not think about that sort of thing?

Meanwhile, the Taliban is growing in influence again. It's as if we were never there.

Saddam supported Terrorism, much like you do: " The Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam is characterized often by support for strict religious law and often promotes violence against non?Muslims. Usama bin Laden is a practitioner of this branch of Islam. When you talk of Islamic extremism this is mostly whom you are talking about. The Wahhabi sect gained notoriety as the base for Saudi Arabia terrorism. In turn, this sect has carried its power and influence to Pakistan and is called Deobandi there. Many of the terrorist training madrassas in Pakistan fall under Deobandi influence. Followers of these two sects carried out and supported the 9/11 attacks.

These extremists were apparently taking religious training in Fallujah, not so many miles away from Baghdad. Did Saddam know the Wahhabis were there?

It would seem so from the memorandum. Did he try to stop them? The not so simple answer is, he initially tried to suppress them and then turned a blind eye. He turned to tolerance. Why?

Because many of his high ranking Baathist officers were in fact strongly tied to these Islamic extremists. This is important because it is the main catalyst of the Iraqi insurgency still today. And this collaboration was born in Fallujah long before we got there. " ... " Saddam gave land grants in Fallujah to his officers and Baath party officials. So naturally, it had a high concentration of people invested in Saddam's dictatorship. Military officers supported their Fallujah lifestyles by smuggling oil?for?food working with foreign peoples along tribal and ethnic affiliations. Now we see a potential avenue for Islamic extremist infiltration. " ... " it would seem that Saddam had filled a city with senior military officers, the guys he relied upon to keep power. Then these guys found it easy to make money by smuggling in cooperation with foreigners, who just so happened to be Islamic extremists. So what was Saddam going to do? Execute all his officers? He certainly would if it was a few or even tens. But this sounds like quite a lot of them were involved.

Saddam lived in fear of a military revolt and his best course of action would be to turn a blind eye instead of confronting them en masse. So the conduit to Islamic extremism was left open and it was smuggled in just as the oil was smuggled out. So we see that indeed, the Baathist initially hunted these militants. " ... " The corruption of the Oil?for?Food program actually promoted the relationship between Baathists and Islamic extremists in Iraq. The Islamic extremists got to spread their ideology under a controlled condition, at the acquiescence of Saddam. They both made money off the smuggling. Iraqi officials got their cut of the money and found a power base in a seemingly odd partnership with extremists.

It has been said many times that there was no terrorism in Iraq before we got there. Could that be because they were getting more from Saddam's cooperation than they would have by fighting against him?

Now maybe the Senate Intelligence committee can understand why Taliban and al Qaeda leaders were meeting with Saddam officials in Baghdad. "

F-16 jets are a good way to attack a neighboring country with a nuclear weapon. Why is Bush allowing them to be sold to Pakistan, a country which harbors and aids terrorists?

Did you ever answer my two questions?

Maybe. Which ones?

C'mon... You know the reality on that one, Joe. Musharraf is unpopular and losing him would not be an improvement in the situation. We have to do something to help prop up this tin-horn dictator because he's OUR tin-horn dictator (shades of the Cold War! Musharraf is like the Shah but without the oil money and classy-looking wife) and, since the Administration lacks imagination and creativity and most of our military is busy elsewhere, the Bush Administration sells Pakistan advanced weaponry to keep Musharraf's military happy. When Musharraf dies (and it's when, not if), we'll be sorry Pakistan has F-16s but the fallout (grisly pun intended) from that is more likely to happen on someone else's watch, so why should Bush worry about it? Even is Musharraf were to be asssasinated today - oops - suddenly fell victim to a "heart attack," it would take a while for Pakistan to stabilize and get down to the serious business of using their F-16's for "special delivery messages" to neighbors hither and yon. Bush might well be out by the time that percolates, so it's still "No worries, mate!"

Or... maybe we'll someday learn that there was a huge bribe from the F-16 manufacturer (is it Boeing, now, or General Dynamics? I haven't kept up with the aerospace mergers) and/or a sizeable kickback from Pakistan or a generous and mysterious contribution to the Republican Party and then we'll be saying, "Ahhh... of course... money talks, nobody walks."

The two I asked the other day.

You read a lot of fiction don't you.

Tell me who you think is the largest foreign buyer of American weaponry. There's a reason for the question, and you'll probably find it interesting.

When you remember them and repeat them, I'll be able to tell you if I answered them.

You aid terrorists, why do you care about others doing it?

You can stop saying stupid things any time you're ready.

Come to think of it why did clinton lead us into somalia? How about Kosovo why in hell did we have to send troops there?

These guys you read here are all pro-islam. They either are or have friends who have brain-washed them into siding with the islamists. Keep that in mind. If you presented them with the question which book is more to what they believe in, the bible or the koran which do you think they'd pick? Then ask which one, Muhammad or Jesus. They'll pick Muhammad.

If I'm not mistaken, clinton sent a bunch of military equipment to Pakistan also. In addition clinton sent china the book on how to do .....you know what.

I'll take a wild guess and say Israel. Ok now it's your turn.

sure.

Saudi Arabia, by a wide margin. This is why we didn't touch them after 9/11.

So, you don't remember your questions? If that's the case, why do you care whether I answer them now?

Are you implying that this is fictional? Point out which parts.

Let me hit the high points:

- Selling F-16s to Pakistan? True

- F-16s can deliver his weapons? True.

- That's destablizing and bad? True.

- Pakistan not entirely cooperatinve in the hunt for ObL? True

- Musharraf unpopular? True, especiallyl in the NW Territories

- Musharraf will die? True, unless the Second Coming occurs first (not holding my breath).

- There will be chaos when he goes? True.

- Huge bribe from the F-16 manufacturer? I clearly labeled that as "maybe" but it has happened before.

You are the one being stupid - you claim you don't care if you support terrorists, you want to shoot teachers when they don't produce perfect results, you claim that public protest isn't used by Terrorists for their benefit.....