Something to keep in mind is that the War against Saddamâs regime was virtually flawless and painless. We lost virtually no one. Now I say that for effect because when you compare the losses in Iraq against any of out other wars the casualties are not deserving of mention. I note that you refer to âtens of thousands of troops deployed for year with bullâs eyes on their backs.â That is what was feared by some, but the reality is otherwise. Compare our casualties with other wars and you will see. Also, the Wilsonian exportation of democracy is the antithesis of realpolitik. Realpolitik was practiced by Kissenger when he argued we should learn to get along with the Soviet Union because they were really going to be around forever. We are not in a quagmire in Iraq. As soon as the Iraqi troops are up to speed we can back out. But we do not want to back out until hey are because that would give a tremendous boost to the Islamists. Perhaps the war could have been fought in a better way. I donât know. But it needed (and needs) to be fought. If Iraq becomes a self-sustaining democracy we will still have Islamists that need to be dealt with, but it will be easier to do so if we donât have to worry about Iraq. You ask how we are going to build solidarity to fight the Islamists. A good start would be for the Media to quit concentrating on âbody bagsâ and report a balanced view of what is really going on in Iraq. If our Media makes us blind to the truth then the people believing them will continue to stumble. Lawrence -----Original Message----- From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John McCreery Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 7:47 PM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Text of bin Laden Tape As I recall from the Phil-Lit days, Lawrence was the one of us who actually put in the hard work to study Islamic fundamentalism and develop a persuasive message that when we hear these people talking about our destruction we ought to take them seriouslyâand be under no illusions that what we hear is only a kind of posturing that will fade away when people of good will, or more likely a realpolitik based on let's make a deal, get together to talk things over. This point I couldn't agree more with what he has said. But Andy asks the right question when he/she asks "How do we defeat terrorism?" What is utterly clear from recent history is that our leaders have been largely clueless. We've heard a lot of cowboy talk about chasing them down and smoking them out. We have seen an invasion of a sovereign nation justified not by real attacks but hypothetical threats that have turned out, as a matter of fact, to have been unfounded. We have seen a military machine so powerful that it could destroy the invaded nation's army in a matter of days bog down in the precisely the murderous quagmire that our military leaders expected (remember Shinseki talking about the need for hundreds of thousands of troops and James Webb writing in The New York Times, "Don't do this Mr. President. We will have to have tens of thousands of troops deployed for year with bull's eyes on their backs.") Why? Because the administration's hand-picked proconsul didn't expect an insurgency (L. Paul Bremer in his new book). Our image abroad has been shot to hell; our army is bleeding and strained to near breaking point; Osama Bin Laden is still out there preaching our destruction. And still all we hear is, "Keep on shopping, the economy needs you. Trust us, we know what we're doing." Know what they're doing? My ass. The lack of enthusiasm for this war has a lot more to do with the public's being lied to and the unkept promises, utter incompetence and rancid, rampant corruption of the current administration than it does with pacificism (a decidedly minority position in today's US of A). We do need to fight terrorists, and we do need to do a hell of a lot better job of it. I repeat Andy's question, Lawrence. How are we going to do that? And how are we going to build the national solidarity that winning that fight will take? John -- John McCreery The Word Works, Ltd. 55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku Yokohama 220-0006, JAPAN NâjxÃâ.+uÃÂÃÅxÂÃrÂ{ÃÂÃiÃÅâÅÃ}ÃzÃÅÃ~ÃÅÃÃÂÂÃrâ}ÂÅÃyÂ