[efnwriter]

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[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Remember the political buildup to the Iraq war? How long did it take? How hard was it?

I don't see Bush going for the military kill in Syria without political cover in Congress, which to me is lacking. Certainly compared with the legion of Security Council resolutions and human-rights abuse reports regarding Iraq. It wasn't that Saddam had WMDs, it was that he had them and had agreed as a condition of the cease-fire to destroy them. Syria doesn't have that political problem.

I think, tho, that the tactic of sending suicidal Assassin cultists trained for attacking Israel into Iraq to attack US is political suicide; the US public will connect the dots and learn to support Israel rather than giving the extremist terror organs a pass. That will become the sticking point between Syria and US, IMHO.

[ArneFufkin]

I'm not certain that the territorial integrity of Iraq is going to be sustainable, nor should it be, forever. If the Arabic or Persian Shi'tes of Basra and Baghdad have nothing in common with the Kurds of Mosul, it makes no sense to promote in the long run some League of Nations construct that lacks social or cultural cohesion and is rife for civil war.

[Stentor]

President George W. Bush and the people of the United States are reluctant warriors.

But there is a little joy in smashing one of these psych-clown led countries a little flatter.