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All emphasis is wholly and completely mine! I got this as an e-mail from a retired LTC of Special Forces. He's been my friend since high school and not only have I actually trusted him with my life, but I listen to him when he says an analysis is "spot on."
1 posted on 02/05/2006 7:16:33 PM PST by ExSoldier
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To: ExSoldier

you have a link for this?


2 posted on 02/05/2006 7:17:41 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator
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To: DAVEY CROCKETT; MamaDearest; LucyT; Velveeta; nw_arizona_granny; Cindy; Oorang; Godzilla; ...
PING!!!!
3 posted on 02/05/2006 7:19:23 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: ExSoldier; Admin Moderator
It's discussed over here with 134 replies.
5 posted on 02/05/2006 7:22:28 PM PST by Jim Noble (And you know what I'm talkin' 'bout)
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To: ExSoldier

This is a thought-provoking article, and I'm glad that you reposted it. Every Freeper should read it, and think seriously about what is being said here.


8 posted on 02/05/2006 7:26:20 PM PST by mojito
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To: ExSoldier
Your friend isn't very sharp. Peters is an idiot.

There is, in short, not a single enemy in existence or on the horizon willing to play the victim to the military we continue to build.

That is, in itself, a victory. It means we DETERED a war of that nature.

Not a single item in our trillion-dollar arsenal can compare with the genius of the suicide bomber--the breakthrough weapon of our time. Our intelligence systems cannot locate him, our arsenal cannot deter him, and, all too often, our soldiers cannot stop him before it is too late.

Horsepucky. Suicide bombers continue to attack civilians in Iraq, but few of our soldiers are being killed by suicide bombers. Name a strategic goal accomplished by the suicide bombers. US out of Iraq? End of Israel? WE're winning the fight against suicide bombers.

One of the most consistently disheartening experiences an adult can have today is to listen to the endless attempts by our intellectuals and intelligence professionals to explain religious terrorism in clinical terms, assigning rational motives to men who have moved irrevocably beyond reason.

True - but few people pay much attention to "our intellectuals and intelligence professionals" - they have a pee-poor track record.

Increasingly, our military is designed for breathtaking sprints, yet a war with China--were one forced upon us by events--would be a miserable, long march. For all the rhetoric expended and the innumerable wargames played, the best metaphor for a serious struggle with Beijing--perhaps of Homeric length--comes from that inexhaustible little book, Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, with its pathetic image of a Western gunboat lobbing shells uselessly into a continent.

Dude, a war with China doesn't mean an invasion of China. That would mean nukes, and most folks understand we cannot win in any meaningful sense such a war. Peters is raising a strawman.

The media may constitute the decisive element in the global counterrevolution in military affairs, and the video camera--that insatiable accomplice of the terrorist--the cheap negation of our military technology.

Peters is a media darling, but most folks trust the media about as much as they trust used car salesmen. Those cameras didn't count for squat against the US military in 2003, did they?

Peters is simply anti-F22. I can sympathize with that, but Peters has no rational alternative.

10 posted on 02/05/2006 7:39:06 PM PST by Mr Rogers
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To: ExSoldier
A man of invincible conviction--call it delusion, if you will--armed with explosives stolen or purchased for a handful of soiled bills can have a strategic impact that staggers governments.

This is ridiculous -- I stopped reading early in this article. The "invincible conviction" rhetoric is silly. And furthermore the sentence is just wrong.

No suicide bomber can "stagger" our government, while our armor (along with innumerable other stragegies) have kept our casualties in this war exceedingly low.

12 posted on 02/05/2006 7:51:21 PM PST by 68skylark
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To: ExSoldier

BTTT


14 posted on 02/05/2006 8:47:36 PM PST by 185JHP ( "The thing thou purposest shall come to pass: And over all thy ways the light shall shine.")
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To: ExSoldier

Ralph Peters, you make me laugh for your lack of research and lack of intelligence.


24 posted on 02/06/2006 3:00:52 AM PST by Wiz
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To: Jimmy Valentine's brother

Self ping to read and think about


25 posted on 02/06/2006 3:17:23 AM PST by Jimmy Valentine's brother (Democrats would rather whine than win)
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To: ExSoldier
We will not be beaten, but we may be shamed and embarrassed on a needlessly long road to victory.

I do not make predictions like this. Any assumption that we will win does damage to our war morale on the homefront. It leads squishies to say things like "we'll win without descending to their level." There is no guarantee that we will win.

We have the ability to win, but now we must win the hearts and minds of the American People. It will take another major attack to mobilize the public in a dramatic way.

I think we are winning. As the leftists become more marginalized the shackles may slowly come off the military and DHS. Unfortunately, when the left becomes more marginalized they themselves will become more violent.

It's going to be a bloody balls-up before it's all over. I don't see any way around it.

30 posted on 02/06/2006 12:04:19 PM PST by Flavius Josephus (Enemy Idealogies: Pacifism, Liberalism, and Feminism, Islamic Supremacism)
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To: ExSoldier

Thanks much great read!


37 posted on 02/06/2006 7:51:05 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT (I can't stay on topic!)
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