Wow Kerry took the Florida primary!

[Occhidiangela]

I heard "you either throw the terrorists out or you don't. If you harbor them, you have just made us your enemy. Stand the f*** by for bad news."

(We have both commented on how the Irish had best batten down the hatches as soon as we have the Oil bit sorted out. There is a Guinness producing land that needs straightening out, what with all of their harboring IRA terrorists, and such. . . and we can even converse with them. !)

Now, I have since heard pundits galore launch all over anyone who disagrees with taking out Saddam. That was momentum from launching on folks who objected to the US heading out to kill Taliban and Al Qaeda folks in Afghanistan. I can understand the objections to the Iraq Operation far better than the other.

Can cutting the cancer out of Iraq be done without leaving a power vacuum in the Mid East and lots of unrest? It is all tied to more than oil, it is a risk taken with a view to changing the security calculus in the Mid East. Change it it has, but the final answer is not out, and won't be for some years. Was it worth taking the risk? Still have mixed feelings on that, but it beats sitting back and waiting for the next jackass to take the initiative and destabalize the Mid East on his own time table. The timid pussies of the world have been whining at the doers and achievers for longer than I have been alive, so of course there was going to be a Greek Chorus calling for "more time and wait and see . . ."

I was quite frankly surprised to see how few chem and bio weapons stocks have been uncovered to date, given the history of those programs. We discussed elsewhere how much of the leaked intel was quite possibly bravado aimed at making his neighbors think he had the goods, a deception plan that backfired when it ran up against Pres Bush's view of the world after 9-11.

As to the "for us or against us" stand in re our NATO allies, far too many folks ignore that some chose to move with us, for better and for worse. France and Germany aren't all of Europe. Indeed, you may note how lame their attempts at European Security have panned out, in re the Balkans, without US assistance. What ever happened to Ardant Du Picq, Erwin Rommel, Charles DeGaulle (the tank commander, not the PM) and Erich Hartman? Is the blood really that thin?

The deadly Iraq mess is still a work in progress: can you bring "democracy" to a country at the point of a bayonet? Not sure, but I am sure you can't, responsibly, have both guns and butter, as the Soviets and LBJ both found out, which pairing is what a war and a tax cut try to create. :unsure:

I still have my bets on the "don't pass" line on that crap table bet in re bayonetting democracy into action. I see an Islamic Republic in Iraq in the near future, though not one identical to Iran's. That would make the whole venture look like "be careful what you wish for, since you are sure to get it." Pres Bush wanted Saddam out of Iraq. He has that now.

Now what?

Occhi