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jps

On Tue, 12 May 2009 00:16:57 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 11 May 2009 21:00:59 -0700, jps wrote:

I have an open bet for anyone who wants a taste that we will still be
in Iraq in 2012 ... and 2016.
... and we still won't find Bin Laden

Yes, true enough.

I hope you're wrong about Iraq.

I expect you're right about bin Laden. The Pakistanis are saying that
he's dead but we've heard the before.

I am not sure anyone really wants Bin Laden dead.
The Taliban needs him as a rallying point and we need him to justify
our ill advised Afghanistan crusade. Were we asleep when the Russians
left with their tail between their legs?

I don't think it's important other than to have control over the
border with Pakistan. That's the scariest part of the globe at this
point. Nuclear weapons were never a good idea. In the hands of folks
who'd like to see a global Caliphate, even worse.

As for Iraq
I wish the Obama I liked had won. You know, the one that was going to
end the war and bring the troops home as soon as he was elected.
He seemed to disappear sometime around February 2008.
This is an 18 year Iraq war right now and I wanted them to come home
when Powell said "mission accomplished" in 1991.
Two Bushes and a Clinton later we are still there with a couple more
"mission accomplished" claimed but not acted on.

I'm with you. Sooner the better but I do expect he's been briefed on
the various risks and taken the best available approach.

I recall him saying "as soon as I'm elected" but was modified to "I'll
start the process." I think other Dems were slagging him about being
too optimistic and inexperienced so he had to modify his rap.