---- Original Message ----- From: To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: 11/13/2005 3:21:20 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Willie Pete's Role Reversal In a message dated 11/13/2005 2:05:42 P.M. Central Standard Time, aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: We're trying to win a war militarily that the military has said cannot be won militarily. HI, But here I would disagree with you. I do not think that this war was ever done the way the military would have done it. A.A. Correct. The Army told Rove, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld they needed far more troops than they Rove, et al. wanted to use. The Rove, et al. big plan was mechanizing the military, using "lily pads", decreased need for soldiers. They were warned by the Army that Iraq couldn't be taken with a force the size of the NYPD. Rove, et al. went ahead anyway. They raised the final number of soldiers, but not to the level the Army wanted. See Frontline if it's still available. I think it was done the way civilian analysts (neo-cons but probably others, too--those into the whole technology movement...) thought it could be done. Quite possibly, those in the military industrial complex (who should have known better?) were also involved...but who knows. A.A. Yes, the civilians in the White House as outlined above, who never saw combat. No--this war could still be done differently and have an outcome which would be positive for the Iraqis. A.A. Not by the military it can't. They've said so. If we choose not to do that, then I do think we need to leave. A.A. It's a rock and a hard place. Or Iraq and a hard place, as the case may be. Who specifically do you think planned this war? Your above statements about the civilian analysts are quite general. But, either way would necessitate the neo-con crowd saying 'we were wrong' --and I think they will have an easier time whining about how the anti-war crowd destroyed the American Spirit (or some such rhetoric) than by agreeing with the military guys who were appalled at how/why the decisions have been made...(which is easier to lose face with...You ego-guys might be able to project yourselves into their brains to see which would be the easiest face-saving way out...) A.A. If there was a way out, it'd have been taken by now. There is no way out. Except leaving. Clinton said to leave and give no time line so the insurgents can't plan around it. Andy Amago Balancing again, Marlena in Missouri