You'd have better luck quoting this source: "The insurgency in Iraq is on
it's last legs" - Vice President Dick Cheney


NOYB wrote:
It is. Don't confuse domestic insurgents with foreign-born terrorists.


I'm not confusing anything. I'm not the one who has something to gain by
obfuscating & sowing confusion.



Umm, for the third time: Hezbollah is neither Syrian nor Iranian.


No kidding. That's why I said "Hezbollah-support network".


And- big news flash here- their support network is NOT the whole country
& 100% of it's population.

We can get rid of support for fundamentalist Muslim terrorism by
strengthening those moderate and pro-Western and secular elements within
those countries.

We won't get anywhere by bashing around like a bull in a china shop,
sowing hatred for America, destroying moderates & radical fundies alike,
and pretending that there's no difference.

That's the equivalent of saying 'the only good rag-head is a dead
rag-head' which might go over real well with the Bush-Cheney power base,
but will lead to dramatic failure & increased terrorism for the future.

If you want to pick a fight, identifying the enemy makes a good first
step, nyet?



The enemy is any country providing assistance to the terrorist groups (like
al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad)


Wrong. You simply don't understand the concept of gathering allies, do you?



.... It was those elements that killed Hariri. Bush and our European
allies tried to do just as you proposed...but the assassination threw a
monkey wrench into the plan.

Not really. The assassination was a tragedy for Lebanon but also
strengthened the hand of the pro-Western moderates. That's true inside
Syria as well, and we would be smart to encourage that development.


That may have been the net outcome...especially now that it's been shown
that
Syria played a role in the assassination. But that certainly wasn't what
Assad
thought would happen.


How do you know? From what I have read, Assad is not dumb and he's not
in favor of turning Syria into a fundamentalist Islamic state. It looks
to me (and to many people who study the situation more closely than I)
that Assad is trying to modernize & Westernize Syria and is opposed by
right wingers & fundamentalists in his own gov't & army.


But hey, let's throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's smash the
whole place and kill a lot of Syrians indiscriminantly. It won't bring
about stability, and it damn sure won't bring about a stable pro-Western
moderate secular gov't, but it will allow the funneling of more billion$
into Halliburton's pockets and it'll play well to the dumb-ass
right-wingers here at home.


But I suppose you must rant & rave about how they are evil violent
fundamentalists (while ignoring the fact that you're a fundamentalist
advocate of violence yourself) & we should kill them all, somehow.



But I belong to the militarily stronger fundamentalist group.


That's what General Westmoreland said in 1967.



He was right. But support wavered at home because of a strong anti-war
movement that eroded the morale and fighting capabilities of the military.


I see. You believe that we lost the war in Viet Nam because of the
hippies waving signs on college campusses?

Actually, the war protest did not "erode the morale & fighting
capabilities of the military" at all. Not one iota. The problem was a
total lack of strategic ability to *defeat* the enemy, coupled with an
inability to install a stable & productive gov't in South Viet Nam.

But hey, it's simpler to just hate the leftie pinko fag traitors, isn't
it? The less thinking, the better, right?



So, using brutal & evil methods is really good IYHO?


Only on evil and brutal people who would do the same to you if the situation
was reversed.


I get it. You support the use of brutal & evil methods because you hate
the people our gov't wants to use them on. In other words, you're on the
same moral level as the terrorists, and you want the U.S. to be an evil
corrupt militaristic state.

Well, I don't. And frankly, I hope your side fails in its attempt.

DSK