"Dave Hall" wrote in message
...
Mark Browne wrote:

"Dave Hall" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:

"thunder" wrote in message
news On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 07:11:46 -0400, Dave Hall wrote:

In Iraq, there is no superpower supplying arms to the
terrorists.
Once
we cut off their supply lines completely, they'll soon be
reduced to
throwing rocks.

Point taken about arms supply, but I wouldn't underestimate the
power
of a
rock. A motivated and resourceful enemy will find a way to kill.
I
think
this has been established in our not so distant past.

Yes. The VC moved quite a lot of material down the Ho Chi Minh
trail,
with
the stuff strapped to bicycles and pushcarts. They did it wearing
sandles
and little not much else but rice.

The VC were also being covertly supplied by the former Soviets. The VC
were very determined, and resourceful. The terrorists in Iraq are
likely
equally motivated and resourceful. But they lack the "man behind the
curtain" supplying them the arms.

1) Man behind the curtain - Saudi oil money - You bet the Arab kings
want
the USA to fail in this adventure.

Transactions like this should be easy to trace. However, the Saudis are
in a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, some of the more fundamental
Islamics, hate the US for what it stands for. On the other hand, the US
is their biggest customer for their oil. As much as the loss of oil
would hurt us, the loss of our dollars would equally hurt the Saudis.

I did not say that they want the US to die, rightists have been floating
that strawman. They just want the US to stop meddling in their affairs.

2) Supply of weapons - Worlds arms market - You name it; it's for sale.

A far different cry from a country which is more than willing to supply
arms gratis, simply because they have a political stake in the outcome
(and they have a large stockpile to pull from).

So they have to pay for them. BFD. Buy some more gas so they have more money
to work with. Besides, there is plenty of drugs being grown in Afghanistan
now - to they have plenty of narco-dollars to work with. Keep the drugs
illegal so that the price stays high and the trade is underground.

For the right price, I'll bet that there are nukes for sale in the
former
Soviet states. For that matter; who knows what Pakistan could do if we
lean
on them hard enough on the Taliban thing.

Again, where the arms are coming from will be sporadic and expensive,
and should be tracable. If WE put pressure of the countries that supply
arms to terrorists, as well as blockade or heavily monitor the Iraqi
borders, the supply of arms will dry up.

Are you living on a different planet than me? If you got money, you can get
guns.

For the kind of pressure you are describing to have any meaning, the
pipelines would have to dry up at the producers, and all the weapons would
have to get "used up". This would take many years. In the mean time, we have
lots of soldiers getting killed in Iraq now!

In any case, there are plenty of weapon to kill American soldiers floating
around the world now.

Mark Browne