----- Original Message ----- From: "Gautam Mukunda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 3:09 PM Subject: Re: Who is the sheriff?
> --- "Marvin Long, Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You're welcome. Get some sleep. > > Not part of the job description, unfortunately :-( > > > It's the > > people on *this* side of > > the Atlantic I worry about. > > > > Marvin Long > > I worry about them too, of course. Heck, I'm one of > them. But the only way I see this working out well > for the US and the world is a quick, clean, and > overwhelming victory on the part of the United States > and its allies. You can guarantee that France and > Germany will pounce on every report of mistakes or > civilian casualties as a way of inflaming the Arab > world against the US, as will (of course) various > malefactors in the Arab/Islamic world. This only > works not just if we win (which is virtually > guaranteed) but win spectacularly and immediately. > Counting on a flawless military campaign is not > usually a winning bet. It's the skill and will and > courage of our men and women that will determine the > course of the 21st century, and the bar they will have > to clear is incredibly high. I'm not totally sure about this. Even discounting the tendency of expectations of people being too high, and the tendency to look for problems after only a few days into a campaign, it appears to me that the viewpoint at the highest level in the Defense department was too optimistic. I think that, no matter how good the troops are, the enemy has at least some say in how the battle unfolds (as I know you know). The fact that the Iraq defense did not simply fold, and showed some intelligence in planning a strategy that at least had a theoretical chance to keep Hussein in power makes me less sanguine about the outcome than I was 2 weeks ago. Are things on the schedule that you hoped for, or is the ability of Iraq to hold together as well as it did for the last two weeks a bit troublesome. What is most worrisome to me is the ability of the Bath party to keep power in Basra and other southern cities. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
