Gould 0738 wrote:

Even take 9-11 for example: the govt could have portrayed
those tragic events as the deranged act of a group of
criminal extremists,

So you are advocating that the government mislead us then? Hmm, imagine
what would happen if the left got wind that the Bush administration held
out "the truth" from us.

??????????????????????????????

It *WAS* the deranged act of a group of criminal ******* extremists, Dave. Not
an excuse to invade two countries (so far), and openly state that there are
more members of the "axis of evil" at risk from our actions in the "war on
terror".

But there ARE other members of whatever name you wish to apply to the
terrorists groups. The perps on 911 were not acting alone. While you can
cut off a plant by the branches, and it keeps growing back, until you
hit the roots of the evil, it will also keep coming back.




The ringleaders should be brought to justice covertly.

For what purpose other than "feel good" pride? You think the group will
fall apart when the leader is caught? As far as we know OBL is already
dead, and the group is still functioning.

So far, our overt acts
have failed to eliminate the top layer of the terrorist network that attacked
us in the US.

We have captured several of the "top dogs" in Al Qaeda. How many more do
we need to catch? And even when we do, there are still junior members
ready to step in. We have to stamp out the environment which creates
these people.

What's just a bit scary about your guy and his crew is the
espoused philosophy that we should now attack everybody who
might, in the future, do some harm to the United States (maybe). There's no
100% reliable way to know who these people are, but if we wipe out enough
people in various areas of the world maybe we can get them all. Maybe.

That's one hell of an exaggeration. It's not the way you portrayed it.
We have intelligence that tells our government (But not the propaganda
speculators) exactly who and where terrorists are likely to be hiding
out, and which governments either overtly or covertly support them. We
have a responsibility to stamp out the whole plant, or it will just grow
back.


We know this: we better not miss as many as 19.

I'm not sure what you mean by the "19" reference.


You can't have it both ways. If you believe that it's in the best
interest of this country to NOT know all the gory details, then you
can't complain when they do it.

Your logic just collapsed on itself.

No, it hasn't. You just misunderstood. I stated that If you believe that
it's in the best
interest of this country to NOT know all the gory details, then you
can't complain when they do hold back the information. And we know
that's the typical MO of the left, when they are constantly on the
attack, criticising the administration for not being "straight up" with
the people.



I have some very terrible news for you. The odds that you actually have any
clue about the actual "gory details" are close to zero.


The same goes for you, but that hasn't stopped you from speculating all
sorts of theories (not so coincidently critical of our administration's
motives) as to what has been happening and why. The whole "war for oil"
mindset.


All you or I know is what we read in the papers or (in your case) hear on talk
radio.

And you too evidently. You seem to know far too much about what is being
spewed out by the latest Limbaugh clone.

Every government, including this one, keeps important secrets from the press.

You are correct, and for good reason. Yet why do your bretheran on the
left constantly criticize our administration for this practice? Why do
these people feel that the public has the right to know everything? And
when they find hints of certain classified material, they right away
jump to the conclusion that the government is "up to no good"? (Of
course this depends on whether there's a republican in office)

International diplomacy is like a poker game- you might be likely to bluff but
it's unlikely you'll show your actual cards around the table while the bets are
going into the pot.

Except that we hold the winning hand.

Dave