"Doug Miller" wrote in message
m...
In article , "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

"Jim Yanik" . wrote in message
...
"Doug Kanter" wrote in
:


Based on these last responses of yours, I need to either know your
age, or end this discussion.




I'm 53.

How old are you?

I'm 52. You've shocked me. I'm surprised you were an adult in the period
between the REAL Bush's presidency and now, and somehow managed not to
notice some contradictions to what YOU have said in the past day or two.
For
instance, we OWNED the borders of Iraq in almost total safety during those
years.

What on earth are you talking about, "we owned the borders of Iraq"
(during
the Clinton years)? We had exactly NO troops on the ground there at that
time,
and exactly NO control over its borders.

And now, we have troops there, many of whom spend their days doing
nothing but searching vehicles. Controlling the smuggling of weapons would
have been quite a bit easier if we'd done it BEFORE your president turned
the place into a free-for-all.

Reality-check time... we didn't have ANY control over it when Saddam was
in
power.

No control over it? What?

Do you recall the no-fly zone that was described more than once by military
spokesmen as an unbelievable asset for testing our airborne weapons systems?
Once established, much of it ceased to be of any use to Iraq. I'm not
talking about troops on the ground (yet).

Now...move West on the map to the area adjacent to Syria. It is described
(again by military sources in the news) as a fairly barren place. Not a rain
forest or large urban environment (which soldiers hate dealing with). I
think that if we had wanted to exercise at least SOME control over that
area, we could have done so, using air & ground forces.

But, as government officials and political commentators love to point out
NOW, the weapons already passed through the area. If you think that anyone
in Rove's cabinet did not see this risk, you're basically stating that
incompetence is just fine with you. Or, if you're stating that the risk WAS
known, and nothing was done.....same thing. Incompetence.

Or, intent. Do you actually believe that seasoned diplomats and military
people could not have predicted where the weapons would vanish to? If you
believe they did, then they were ignored or silenced. Why?