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NOYB March 3rd 05 06:44 PM


"John H" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:34:50 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:

And some more good news:


Saudis Tell Syria to Withdraw From Lebanon

7 minutes ago

By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Saudi officials told Syrian President Bashar Assad on
Thursday that he must fully withdraw troops from Lebanon and begin soon or
face strains in Saudi-Syrian ties. Assad promised only to study the idea
of
a partial withdrawal by later this month.



The kingdom took a tough line as Assad met with the Saudi leader, Crown
Prince Abdullah, and other officials in Riyadh. So far, Damascus has
resisted Arab pressure for a quick pullout from Lebanon.


Saudi officials told Assad the kingdom insists on the full withdrawal of
all
Syrian military and intelligence forces from Lebanon and wants it to start
"soon," according to a Saudi official who spoke by telephone from Riyadh.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even the US has more allies in the Middle East than Syria.


Let's see...Saudi Arabia gets into it with Syria.


Saudi Arabia isn't going to get into it with Syria. But I'm glad that
they're taking our (and the rest of the World's) side on this one.


We go in to Saudi Arabia to
provide 'assistance' and take on Syria while we're there. Saudi Arabia
then
'asks' us to stick around and protect them and their oil, so we put in a
few air
fields and other installations.


We won't go back into Saudi Arabia. We left there because our presence was
bringing too much heat on the Saudi Royal family. They're in the midst of a
civil war against the Wahabbists in their own country.




thunder March 3rd 05 07:22 PM

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 13:27:38 -0500, John H wrote:

Let's see...Saudi Arabia gets into it with Syria. We go in to Saudi Arabia
to provide 'assistance' and take on Syria while we're there. Saudi Arabia
then 'asks' us to stick around and protect them and their oil, so we put
in a few air fields and other installations. We just 'happen' to be right
across the pond from Iran.

Could get really interesting!


Haven't been paying much attention, have you John? American troops in
Saudi *is* the reason bin Laden declared war on us. One of bin Laden's
demands was for American forces to leave Saudi, and of course our CIC
accommodated the terrorist. Perhaps, that is why we haven't heard much
from bin Laden lately, all his demands have been met.

John H March 3rd 05 08:13 PM

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 14:22:38 -0500, thunder wrote:

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 13:27:38 -0500, John H wrote:

Let's see...Saudi Arabia gets into it with Syria. We go in to Saudi Arabia
to provide 'assistance' and take on Syria while we're there. Saudi Arabia
then 'asks' us to stick around and protect them and their oil, so we put
in a few air fields and other installations. We just 'happen' to be right
across the pond from Iran.

Could get really interesting!


Haven't been paying much attention, have you John? American troops in
Saudi *is* the reason bin Laden declared war on us. One of bin Laden's
demands was for American forces to leave Saudi, and of course our CIC
accommodated the terrorist. Perhaps, that is why we haven't heard much
from bin Laden lately, all his demands have been met.



Whoooosh!


John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

Bert Robbins March 3rd 05 10:55 PM


"NOYB" wrote in message
.net...

"John H" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:34:50 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:

And some more good news:


Saudis Tell Syria to Withdraw From Lebanon

7 minutes ago

By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Saudi officials told Syrian President Bashar Assad on
Thursday that he must fully withdraw troops from Lebanon and begin soon
or
face strains in Saudi-Syrian ties. Assad promised only to study the idea
of
a partial withdrawal by later this month.



The kingdom took a tough line as Assad met with the Saudi leader, Crown
Prince Abdullah, and other officials in Riyadh. So far, Damascus has
resisted Arab pressure for a quick pullout from Lebanon.


Saudi officials told Assad the kingdom insists on the full withdrawal of
all
Syrian military and intelligence forces from Lebanon and wants it to
start
"soon," according to a Saudi official who spoke by telephone from Riyadh.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even the US has more allies in the Middle East than Syria.


Let's see...Saudi Arabia gets into it with Syria.


Saudi Arabia isn't going to get into it with Syria. But I'm glad that
they're taking our (and the rest of the World's) side on this one.


We go in to Saudi Arabia to
provide 'assistance' and take on Syria while we're there. Saudi Arabia
then
'asks' us to stick around and protect them and their oil, so we put in a
few air
fields and other installations.


We won't go back into Saudi Arabia. We left there because our presence
was bringing too much heat on the Saudi Royal family. They're in the
midst of a civil war against the Wahabbists in their own country.


Ding, Ding, Ding give that man a prize!



[email protected] March 4th 05 02:20 AM

Here's some real news for you war mongers.

Shame, shame, shame on all of you. :-(

U=2ES. Military Deaths in Top 1,500
Drumbeat of Attacks Continues to Roil Post-Election Iraq
By TOM RAUM, AP



AFP/Getty Images


Of the 1,502 U.S. troop deaths in Iraq, at least 1,030 resulted from
hostile action, the military said.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
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More on This Story:
=B7 Army Misses Recruiting Goal
=B7 Another $1.8 Billion for Wars?
=B7 Lawyer Seeks Delay for Saddam
=B7 Iraq's Oil Industry Crippled

Talk About It: Post | Chat


BAGHDAD, Iraq (March 3) - The conflict in Iraq can be told in numbers
and milestones, from the more than 1,500 troops who now have died to
the number of weapons of mass destruction found - zero.

Two American soldiers died in Baghdad of injuries from a roadside bomb
and another was killed in Babil province south of Baghdad, the military
said on Thursday. That brought to 1,502 the number of U.S. troops who
have died since President Bush launched the invasion in March 2003,
according to an AP count.

There are other milestones, other important numbers, some reached, some
soon to be, as the conflict in Iraq nears its third year.

- Roughly 60,000 National Guard and Reserve troops are deployed in
Iraq. As of Wednesday, 300 had died there since the war began.

- May 1 will be the second anniversary of Bush's ''mission
accomplished'' aircraft carrier speech in which he announced an end to
major combat operations.

- The price tag is over $300 billion and climbing, including $81.9 more
just requested from Congress. The money also covers operations in
Afghanistan and the broader war on terror, but the bulk is for Iraq.

When Lawrence Lindsey, then chairman of Bush's National Economic
Council, predicted in September 2002 that the cost of war with Iraq
could range from $100 billion to $200 billion, the White House openly
contradicted him and said the figure was far too high. He was eased out
in a shake-up of Bush's economic team.

''Americans need to take note of these sorts of milestones because it's
a way to show respect for the sacrifices of troops and reassess
strategy,'' said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst with the
Brookings Institution.

''But I'm much more interested in trends,'' he added, citing
indications pointing to the relative strength of the insurgency and
whether violence is declining or increasing.

On that, the signs are mixed.

The top U.S. general in the region said that about 3,500 insurgents
took part in election day violence in Iraq on Jan. 30, citing estimates
from field commanders. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid suggested the failure
to prevent millions of Iraqis from voting showed the insurgency was
losing potency.

''They threw their whole force at us, we think, and yet they were
unable to disrupt the elections because people wanted to vote,''
Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week.

But his comments came just a day after one of the biggest attacks by
insurgents since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003.
A suicide car bombing in the town of Hillah killed at least 125 people,
including dozens of recruits for Iraq's security forces.

From Jan. 1 until Iraq's election day, 234 people were killed and 429

people were injured in at least 55 incidents, according to an AP count.
Casualties rose in February, with 38 incidents resulting in at least
311 deaths and 433 injuries.

Meanwhile, the United States is losing some partners in its ''coalition
of the willing.''

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced this week that Ukraine
would withdraw its 1,650-strong military contingent by October. Poland
is withdrawing about a third of its 2,400 troops. Last year, Spain's
new Socialist government withdrew its 1,300 troops.

At the same time, Bush drew commitments during his visit to Europe last
week from all 26 NATO countries for contributions to NATO's training of
Iraqi security forces - either inside or outside Iraq or in cash.

Even harsh war critic France will send one officer to help mission
coordination at NATO headquarters in Belgium and has separately offered
to train 1,500 Iraqi military police in Qatar.

More than half of Americans remain convinced of the importance of
keeping U.S. troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized, though
polls suggest widespread doubts about the handling of the war and
Iraq's prospects. An AP-Ipsos poll in February found that 42 percent
approved of the president's handling of Iraq, while 57 percent
disapproved. A slight majority in recent AP-Ipsos polling expressed
doubts that a stable Iraq can be established.

Another milestone will come the day Iraq's security forces are
sufficiently trained and equipped to deal with the insurgency - and to
permit the United States to begin leaving.

There have been conflicting reports on this, too.

The administration says there are 140,000 ''trained and equipped''
Iraqi military, security and police officers.

But Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies, puts the number of Iraqi troops able to
stand up to serious insurgent attack at fewer than 20,000.

''Everything we do in Iraq will fail unless we develop a convincing
plan to create Iraqi forces'' able to defend their country without U.S.
help, Cordesman said.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Armed Services
Committee, said some administration documents suggest that there are no
more than about 40,000 trained Iraq forces and that they are lightly
equipped.

''We've been given wildly different numbers of these security forces,''
Levin complained to Abizaid.

''Senator, the big question doesn't really have to do with numbers; the
question has to do with institution building,'' Abizaid responded. ''I
remind you ... that institution building takes a long time.''

''I agree,'' Levin said. ''But we shouldn't kid ourselves as to how
long it does take.''


John H March 4th 05 12:26 PM

On 3 Mar 2005 18:20:39 -0800, wrote:

Here's some real news for you war mongers.



Yes Chuck, the elections were a shining light, even amongst the negatives your
boy (or girl) put out as 'real news'.

Does attempting to provide good news to go along with the bad make one a war
monger?

Is bad news the only 'real news'?

Shame on you, Chuck!


John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

Mule March 4th 05 02:06 PM

Warmongers?
How about all the people like yourself that oppose any action in Iraq
and just wanted to let Saddam keep the status quo, doesn't that make
all of you oppressors or at least enablers?

Case in point if someone is getting mugged right in front of you, and
you do nothing; then doesn't your coward ness make you just as guilty
as the mugger because you have not taken action and allowed the mugger
to commit his crime? Society cannot allow these types of things let
this to happen anymore, we can't just look the other way. These
injustices have allowed the creation of the terrorist of the world.

Don't get me wrong I am not saying that we need to invade every
country with a dictator who is abusing his people, but in the case of
Iraq, it was the right thing to do and that is justified by the fact
that the people of Iraq came out and voted against all odds. They have
finally been heard after months and months of people like you drowning
out their voices saying that we shouldn't have helped them.

The effects of Iraq are spreading to other countries like Lebanon and
elsewhere, where the people have heard from the USA for years that we
are for freedom, but we have never shown them that are intentions are
truthful by supporting the dictators that keep them suppressed. In
Lebanon we are not dropping bombs but are giving support and putting
pressure on Syria, thereby helping the people of Lebanon gain their own
liberty.

The positive changes in the Middle East are happening right in front of
you and at greater speed than most thought. Although time will tell, at
the moment Bush's strategy seems to have been right! :)


[email protected] March 4th 05 04:17 PM

John H wrote:


Does attempting to provide good news to go along with the bad make one
a war
monger

*********************************

No, but discounting all aspects of the tragedy of war and concentrating
only on the rare humanitarian moments or the rebuilding of bombed out
infrastructure does.

Rooting, tooting, blood-lusting, and abandoning critical thought in
favor of flag waving patriotic zeal on the eve of war makes one a war
monger.

Discounting or rejecting other solutions and ignoring all evidence
contrary to the trumped up justification for invading another country
makes one a war monger.

Despairing that we have not killed a sufficient number of foreign
persons and calling for the wide spread use of nuclear weapons in a
region (as some in this forum have done) makes one a war monger.

Accepting ridiculous claims as the basis for the invasion of another
country, and then allowing, accepting, endorsing, and applauding the
tactic of shifting the justification between a series of additional
reasons as the former claims are proven untrue makes one a war monger.

When we were kids we were told that Russia was a threat to the US. They
were likely to invade us and try to set up their preferred form of
government here. Now that the US is doing *exactly* that elsewhere in
the world, it is no longer an unthinkable, shameful, immoral action-
it's a heroic
quest? Believing that makes one a war monger.

So if you see yourself described in one or more paragraphs above, shame
on you for war mongering.


[email protected] March 4th 05 04:36 PM

Mule wrote:

Warmongers?
How about all the people like yourself that oppose any action in Iraq
and just wanted to let Saddam keep the status quo, doesn't that make
all of you oppressors or at least enablers?

***********

People who opposed taking any sort of action in Iraq and "just wanted
to let Saddam keep the status quo" are very much un-like myself, so the
rest of your nonsense is barely worthy of a reply.

People like myself would have at least heard what Hussein had to say
when he asked for a meeting with Bush or the Secty of State just hours
before the invasion began, rather than responding that it was "too
late" for diplomacy. Heck, for all we know he might have offered to go
into exile if we'd let him take a couple of billion of his bucks with
him. We would have been hundreds of billions ahead, with 100,000 deaths
and injuries prevented, and probably further into the political reform
of Iraq than we are today. When we faced the Russians in the Cuban
Missle Crisis we used the military to make the other side "blink". That
was statesmanship. We prevailed. Using the other side's "blink" as a
prime opportunity to hit the opponent with eyes closed may be
effective, but it's not statesmanship and it will come back to bite us
on the butt.


John H March 4th 05 07:41 PM

On 4 Mar 2005 08:36:14 -0800, wrote:

Mule wrote:

Warmongers?
How about all the people like yourself that oppose any action in Iraq
and just wanted to let Saddam keep the status quo, doesn't that make
all of you oppressors or at least enablers?

***********

People who opposed taking any sort of action in Iraq and "just wanted
to let Saddam keep the status quo" are very much un-like myself, so the
rest of your nonsense is barely worthy of a reply.

People like myself would have at least heard what Hussein had to say
when he asked for a meeting with Bush or the Secty of State just hours
before the invasion began, rather than responding that it was "too
late" for diplomacy. Heck, for all we know he might have offered to go
into exile if we'd let him take a couple of billion of his bucks with
him. We would have been hundreds of billions ahead, with 100,000 deaths
and injuries prevented, and probably further into the political reform
of Iraq than we are today. When we faced the Russians in the Cuban
Missle Crisis we used the military to make the other side "blink". That
was statesmanship. We prevailed. Using the other side's "blink" as a
prime opportunity to hit the opponent with eyes closed may be
effective, but it's not statesmanship and it will come back to bite us
on the butt.


Perhaps you're correct, Chuck. Perhaps Saddam was going to capitulate at the
last moment, tell us where all the bad stuff was, stop killing his people by the
hundred-thousands, and promise not to attack anyone ever again.

But if we'd listened to all that there wouldn't have been elections in Iraq,
there wouldn't have been a capitulation by Libya, there wouldn't have been
elections in Saudi Arabia, or newfound democratic intentions in Egypt, or the
departure of Syrian troops from Lebanon, or any change whatsoever in any of the
attitudes in the mideast.

Chirac and crew would still be getting millions from the oil for food program,
along with half (it seems) of the UN bureaucracy, hundreds of thousands of men,
women and children would still be in mass graves, and everything would be
hunky-dory.

When we faced the Soviets in the Cuban Missile Crisis, we didn't worry about
what the UN, or France, or Germany thought. We just did what we had to do.


John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."


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