Just a quick hello. In case anyone has been wondering, I have not been paying tto much attention here lately for personal reasons. Little Colin is about to be born, and I've had quite a few worries that I won't trouble you with as far as that goes. Suffice it to say that I've been busy. A few quick points: 1) The attacks in Iraq are being carried out by Baathist remnants and (increasingly) Al Qaeda activists. This in combination with any damn Palestinian who feels like martyring himself (Palestinians were always Saddam's favorites). 2) Saddam is still alive. He is also still inside Iraq. I had thought that there was a decent (although never definite) chance that he was dead, but I am convinced otherwise now. He is most likely traveling with Bedouins in the northwestern tribal areas, and will be difficuly to find. But he will be found - he's no Osama, and has neither the resources nor the political capital necessary to evade capture for an extended period as Osama does. 3) The reporting on Iraq sickens me. It just friggen sickens me. Our activities there are overwhelmingly positive, yet everything reported from there is negative. At least a 85% positive to 15% negative ratio, and yet the media can only report the bad. Well, for every attack on our troops or every attack on the Iraqis' future, there are at least ten major projects that improve Iraqis' lives every day. It will never make the news... Strangely, when we really start winning against the insurgents (already happening) you will just stop hearing about Iraq so much, because the media has already developed a theme which prohibits them from reporting everything positive that is going on. You'll just stop hearing about it. When Iraq starts exiting the nightly news, that will be a tangible sign that the war is really won. 4) We will win this guerilla war within the next year. This is not like earlier conflicts for a number of reasons: A) the enemy has a very limited base of popular support (almost none), a vital requirement for any insurgency; B) they have a limited materiel supply (weapons, ammo, cash, etc); C) the opposing army - us - is already controlling their property, and they have no industrial or financial base of support; D) political momentum resides with us, despite what you hear coming from the UN; E) We have future logistical options in the form of both NGOs and our own internal military and political structure, while the enemies do not... One year. More like a couple of months... And the positive here: Al Qaeda can't send martyrs to Iraq fast enough. We are killing the bad guys at a rate we couldn't hope to match in Afghanistan. We've goaded the otherwise would-be bus-bombers and boxcutter-weilding fanatics to attack our army in another country instead of attacking our civilians inside our own. We are killing Islamic fanatics at unheard of rates there (although it won't make the nightly news)... That in itself is a massive coup-de-grace in the War on Terror. And anyone who thought that this was separate from the WoT can classify themselfes as Wrong, Wrong, and extremely Wrong for the past year and a half. It has always been central to that effort. This transformation, as well as the battleground it produces, has always been the centerpiece in that war. If you still don't get it, ask me in five years why. 5) The WMD are still there. They didn't just friggen dissolve into thin air, as some Democrats would have you believe. They will be found. And when they are I will be back to vanquish the No Worries virus once and for all. It is just a matter of time. centrifuge... Until later.
Great to hear from you. Hope all goes well with the impending birth (did you name him after Powell? ). I, for one, appreciate your perspective on all of this....
Treeman, It’s great hearing from you, and as always I appreciate your service to our country. I really look forward to reading your perspective about the war and our military in general. You really help balance the board out, so please keep in touch. Congrats on your new arrival ! Is this your first ?
this is actually the part i'm most encouraged about. this means we're fighting the war on terror on OUR terms on THEIR soil. that alone sounds like the beginnings of victory to me. God bless, Treeman...I wish you the best.
this is actually the part i'm most encouraged about. this means we're fighting the war on terror on OUR terms on THEIR soil. that alone sounds like the beginnings of victory to me Do you do realize that this is only treeman's opinion from reading the National Review Online and other sources?
Treeman, excellent post. As much as the liberals will attempt to belittle you and discredit your knowledge, rest assured that *none* of them are as knowledgeable as you, or as informed on the topic as you. They pale in comparison. Great post.
Glynch, Since Treeman is in the military and is more in the know then anyone else on this board, what do you attribute your wealth of knowledge too? I would take his perspective over yours any day. DD
Or, we're sitting in their backyard, on unfamiliar territory, fighting a guerilla war (which is really their terms, not ours; case in point, the article about the tank crews forced to dismount and use discarded Iraqi ak 47's); and we're serving as the world's largest terrorist recruiting poster. Oh, and we're trying to re-build a nation at the same time and keep a poor, suspicious, and somewhat hostile populace happy. Do you think killing a few grunts/martyrs every now and then is going to make a difference? Do you think the guys in the overseas cells are going to drop everything, and fly back to the ME so they can get shot up from a humvee? This is just post-hoc rationalization from the Administration to link this to the war on terror. When you do stuff like this, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy: you go to Iraq, make it a hell of a lot easier for arabs to go from anti american to full fledged terrorists by posting a kick-me sign on you ass and walking around their backyard, and then claim you're fighting the war on terror. Oh, you're fighting it all right, and you will be infinitely into the future at that rate.
I'm not sure where treeman is stationed, but just because he's in the army doesn't necessarily mean that his opinions are more valid. Do you feel that andymoon knows more about drugs and the effect legalization would have on society than you just because he's counseled addicts? Didn't think so.
Actually, I do think AndyMoon knows more about Drugs etc because of his experience. It is when he gets into conjecture and opinion that we differ, but I take his posts as coming from a solid base of knowledge. Just as Treeman is coming from a more knowledgeable position by being in the military and having more day to day contact with the war in Iraq, and not from television, the internet, or newspapers. Just as I take my knowledge about baseball to be far superiour to yours RM95.. DD
Great to read your post Treeman. You are BY FAR the most knowledgable poster on this subject on this BBS. In 6 months, the opinions of guys like Glynch and Sam Fisher will be exposed as childish, petty, ignorant, and malicious. The people in this country who work to embolden our enemies are unwittingly treasonous. It makes me SICK. Good luck to your new family.
Your spelling and grammatical skills as well? People are wondering why I'm laughing so hard at the computer screen. You're proven wrong nearly everyday in the baseball forum. I don't claim to know much about baseball (there are far more knowledgeable over there...bobrek, Major, Buck Turgidson, RocketmanTex, MadMax), but I'm comfortable with the fact that I have a better understanding than you, especially when those I just mentioned shoot you down constantly. Oh, let me follow that up with a .
Obviously one of us is completely right and one of us is dead wrong. There's no way the truth could be in between. Red vs. Blue.
Nah, my spelling sucks, and I am glad you are laughing that was my intent. And I hardly think different and varying opinions are a point of being PROVEN wrong, they are just opinions. DD
