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Home Front: Politix
VDH - Kavanaugh Casualties
2018-10-10
[National Review] When the Christine Ford saga finally ended with the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, a lot of truth had distilled out, along with the evaporation of prior pretensions and misconceptions.

The Left

The hearing confirmed that the traditional JFK/Hubert Humphrey Democrat party, as once envisioned by a Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, or Jim Webb, is long kaput. In its place is being birthed a hard-left progressive movement that absorbs the ideologies and methodologies of its base and that now incorporates all sorts, from Ocasio-Cortez’s socialist hipsters to Black Lives Matters, Antifa, and Occupy Wall Street protestors.

The new progressives recently have come to believe that they gain traction by the theater of disrupting senate hearings, cornering senators in elevators, stalking them on the way to work, doxing their opponents on the Internet, and during the hearings throwing out the concept of due process. Any means is deemed permissible to enact visions of social justice, given legislative and executive power is lost for now ‐ and as if proverbially ordinary Americans who watched the televised circus might applaud the performers.
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Home Front: Politix
Kavanaugh, The Disgust Circuit, And The Limits Of "Nuts & Sluts"
2018-09-29
[Zero] The Ragin’ Cajun, I believe, coined the phrase "Nuts and Sluts" to succinctly describe the tactic used by the elites I call The Davos Crowd to smear and destroy someone they’ve targeted.

Brett Kavanaugh is the latest victim of this technique. But, there have been dozens of victims I can list from Gary Hart in the 1980’s to former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn to Donald Trump.

"Nuts and Sluts" is easy to understand. Simply accuse the person you want to destroy of being either crazy (the definition of which shifts with whatever is the political trigger issue of the day) or a sexual deviant.

This technique works because it triggers most people’s Disgust Circuit, a term created by Mark Schaller as part of what he calls the Behavioral Immune System and popularized by Johnathan Haidt.

The disgust circuit is easy to understand.

It is the limit at which behavior in others triggers our gut-level outrage and we recoil with disgust.

The reason "Nuts and Sluts" works so well on conservative candidates and voters is because, on average, conservatives have a much stronger disgust circuit than liberals and/or libertarians.

This is why it always seems to be that anyone who threatens the global order or the political system always turns out to have some horrible sexual deviance in their closet.

It’s why the only thing any of us remember about the infamous Trump Dossier is the image of Trump standing on a bed in a Moscow hotel room urinating on a hooker.

The technique is used to drive a wedge between Republican voters and lawmakers and make it easy for them to go along with whatever stupidity is brought forth by the press and the Democrats.

And don’t think for a second that, more often than not, GOP leadership isn’t in cahoots with the DNC on these take-downs. Because they are.
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Home Front: Politix
Facing long odds, O'Malley enters race for president
2015-05-31
[BALTIMORESUN] Martin O'Malley
...former Democratic governor of Maryland and aspiring presidential candidate, known locally as The One-Man Economic Wrecking Crew. O'Malley was elected to his second term driven by union support and near-Stalinesque vote margins in Baltimore city (82%) and Prince George's County (88%)...
, the former Maryland governor who ushered in an era of tech-savvy management and a new brand of progressive politics during more than two decades in public office, announced his long-expected campaign for president on Saturday.

With Baltimore's skyline as his backdrop, the 52-year-old Democrat and former mayor framed next year's election in dire terms, suggesting his administration would serve as a bulwark against GOP efforts to cut the federal government and social programs.

"My decision is made," O'Malley told a crowd of several hundred at Federal Hill Park. "Today, to you -- and to all who can hear my voice -- I declare that I am a candidate for President of the United States."

O'Malley, who got his start in politics on Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign, was scheduled to leave Maryland on Saturday for a two-day swing through Iowa and New Hampshire this weekend. O'Malley phoned Clinton ahead of his announcement to personally inform her of his plans, according to a report in Time.

During O'Malley's tenure Maryland approved gay marriage, a minimum wage increase, tougher gun laws, a repeal of the death penalty and several laws to help immigrants who are in the country illegally. His administration guided the state through the Great Recession, which hit Maryland with less force than the rest of the nation.

But O'Malley may be best known as the young, brash, guitar playing councilman improbably elected to lead a majority African American city beset by poverty, abandonment and violent crime. He embraced a new way of thinking about management — relying on data to measure the time it took to fill potholes and fix streetlights — and a tough policing strategy that remains controversial today.
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Home Front: Politix
Chinese Law Firm to Merge With American Firms, Employ Howard Dean, Newt Gingrich
2015-05-23
Dacheng, one of the biggest law firms in the People's Republic of China, is set to merge with two major American law firms, Dentons and McKenna Long & Aldridge, making it the largest law firm in the world.

The arrangement will bring together a unique arrangement of policy professionals all under the same roof. The new mega-firm will employ, via Dentons: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Democratic National Committee Chair Joe Andrew, and former Rep. Van Hilleary, R-Tenn., among others. McKenna Long's political roster includes: former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, former Rep. Bill Owens, D-N.Y., and former Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo. Many of the individuals, like Hart, do not have a law degree or practice law, but work in the "government affairs" departments of the two firms, a catch-all phrase to describe lobbying-related business.
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Home Front: Politix
Democrats' Colorado gold rush turns into a bust
2009-08-24
Colorado, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, has some claim to be on the leading edge of American politics. It produced anti-war, pro-environment Democrats like Sen. Gary Hart in the 1970s, Reaganite Republicans like Sen. Bill Armstrong even before Ronald Reagan won in 1980, Clintonesque Democrats like Gov. Roy Romer in the 1980s and National Review's favorite Republican governor, Bill Owens, in the 1990s.

In this decade, a group of liberal multimillionaires -- Tim Gill, Rutt Bridges, Jared Polis and Pat Stryker -- developed "the Colorado model," not only funding candidates, but setting up think tanks, advocacy groups and public relations operations designed to oust Republicans and install Democrats.

As Fred Barnes pointed out in The Weekly Standard last year, this Colorado model has been a brilliant success. Democrats captured both houses of the legislature and a Senate and House seat in 2004, the governorship in 2006, and a Senate and House seat in 2008. Colorado, which voted for George W. Bush by 8 points in 2000 and 5 points in 2004, voted for Barack Obama by 9 points in 2008. It was a fitting conclusion to a campaign in which Obama accepted his nomination in front of Greek columns in Denver's Invesco Field.

But now, Colorado seems to be going in the other direction. Gov. Bill Ritter, elected by 17 points in 2006 and seeking another term next year, is trailing former Republican Rep. Scott McInnis in the polls and runs only even against a little-known Republican state legislator. Michael Bennet, appointed by Ritter to fill Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's Senate seat, has a negative job rating and runs well under 50 percent against Republican opponents. Barack Obama's job rating in the state has been conspicuously below his national average -- closer to those of still rock-ribbed Republican Rocky Mountain states than the hip states of the Pacific Coast.

Campaigning, it turns out, is easier than governing. The Colorado-model folks could target particular legislators, taking one out for her strident opposition to same-sex marriage, beating another with the support of horny-handed labor union operatives. Out of office, Ritter could gush with enthusiasm about alternative energy sources and Obama could eloquently promise hope and change.

In office, thing have gotten stickier. Ritter enraged union leaders by vetoing their pet legislation, then risked alienating suburbanites with an executive order empowering public employee unions. Limited by Colorado's taxpayer bill of rights, he imposed higher fees on car registration, but at the same time has had to order big spending cuts.

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Home Front: Politix
The Eternal Hero, eternally disappointing
2008-02-20
Jim Geraghty, National Review

Barack Obama doesn’t exist.

Oh, sure, there is a U.S. senator from Illinois named Barack Obama, who appears well on his way to being the Democratic presidential nominee. Barack Obama the Man exists. Barack Obama the Ideal does not — though few Democrats want to believe that right now.

As former Bush e-communications strategist Patrick Ruffini has noted, Obama is not being sold as a political leader who supports certain policies. He’s being sold as a brand that makes you feel certain feelings — among them, hope, optimism, and a sense that he represents “change we can believe in.” Don’t ask what kind of change. Just Do It. Because You’re Worth It. Yes, We Can.

While the mania and faux-messianic themes (“we are the ones we’ve been waiting for”; Oprah’s declaration that he is “The One”) are more explicit than in previous election cycles, the yearning for that perfect, unifying candidate seems to come every four years, and every time the Democrats wind up disappointed. The concept of the principled liberal who can win over support from left, right, and center — the political savior; the eternal hero — is resurrected quadrennially by the secular Left. Democrats are now swooning again — sometimes literally — over inexpressible hopes for transformative change that no flesh-and-blood politician could deliver.

Obama, as well meaning as he seems to be, is a human being with flaws. What’s more, he’s a politician, capable of compromising high-minded principles for momentary political gain. . . . But a candidate with consistent views and a list of legislative accomplishments isn’t what Democratic voters yearn for — ask Joe Biden, Bill Bradley, Joe Lieberman, or Bob Kerrey. Democrats want to be romanced. They want easy-on-the-eyes candidates who make their hearts palpitate, who make them feel that utopia is just around the corner, who can usher in the secular progressive equivalent of the Kingdom of God.

Hollywood is part of the problem. Tinseltown constantly teases Democrats with onscreen depictions of ideal presidents of the Left. On The West Wing, President Jeb Bartlett combined the best of FDR and Bill Clinton (a catalogue of West Wing plotlines inspired by the Clinton years can be found here), while Martin Sheen subtly mimicked John F. Kennedy in the role. West Wing creator Sorkin’s earlier film The American President likewise contributed to the impossible Democratic ideal of wise, incorruptible, and unapologetically progressive power.

Hollywood is the appropriate locus for such political yearning — as it is a small step away from waiting for the Man on a White Horse: the decisive leader, a stranger to the broken status quo, who sweeps in and cleans up the town, often with semi-dictatorial tones. Democrats would deny that they want that, of course. But nearly every cycle, a large chunk of the Democratic base and more than a few prominent voices publicly fall in love with a candidate, whom they declare to be “the second coming of JFK.” . . .

The thing is, we’ve seen this movie before. (Perhaps literally, if Obama is the Redford-esque candidate who drops controversial liberal stands in order to get elected on empty cheer and charm before asking, “Now what?” Is Obama’s “Change We Can Believe In” any more meaningless than “For a better way: Bill McKay!”)

Former president Clinton vacationed off Martha’s Vineyard in yachts filthy with Kennedys; he quoted Kennedy regularly; and even compared himself to JFK while admitting the Lewinsky affair to his cabinet. A centerpiece of the 1992 Democratic Convention was the photo of a teenage Bill Clinton shaking hands with JFK, a perfect visual representation of “the torch being passed to a new generation.” That image — which Time called “the anointing touch” — appeared in Clinton’s ads.

John Kerry would try the same thing. . . . Before Kerry and Clinton, presidential hopefuls Gary Hart and (believe it or not) Jimmy Carter were also compared to JFK. This year, the comparisons have been no less explicit, and in Obama, we have one of the few candidates who is compared to both John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury managed to be funny for a change as he portrayed his protagonist’s daughter, a smitten Obama supporter, contemplating the challenges her hero faces running as, “The First Black Kennedy.”

But when everybody’s the next JFK, nobody’s the next JFK. . . . We’ve heard this story before, and we know it doesn’t end well. Every aspiring Democratic president deemed “the next JFK” has revealed feet of clay — be it from scandal, domestic- or foreign-policy failures, a sense of opportunities squandered or great promise unfulfilled. In every instance, there was always a man behind the curtain whom it became impossible to ignore.

Could Barack Obama go on to be a successful president? It’s possible, and if he attains the office, Americans of all political stripes will wish him well in his duties to protect the country. But history, and human nature, tell us that no president could live up to the inhuman expectations being created at this moment.
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Home Front: Politix
NYC mayor Bloomberg to call for Gov't of National Unity™
2007-12-30
...in the US.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a potential independent candidate for president, has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans, who will join him in challenging the major party contenders to spell out their plans for forming a "government of national unity" to end the gridlock in Washington.

Others who will be at the Jan. 7 session at the University of Oklahoma said that if the likely nominees of the two parties do not pledge to "go beyond tokenism" in building an administration that seeks national consensus, they will be prepared to back Bloomberg or someone else in a third-party campaign for president.

The list of attendees suggests the group could muster the financial and political firepower to make the threat of such a candidacy real. Conveners of the meeting include such prominent Democrats as former senators Sam Nunn of Georgia, Charles Robb of Virginia and David Boren of Oklahoma, and former presidential candidate Gary Hart. Republican attendees are to include Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, former party chairman Bill Brock, former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.
All of whom have lost at least one big election, and several of whom grabbed for the big, brass ring only to end up with empty hands. Hmmmmph.
Boren, who will host the meeting at the university, where he is president, said: "It is not a gathering to urge any one person to run for president, or to say there necessarily ought to be an independent option. But if we don't see a refocusing of the campaign on a bipartisan approach, I would feel I would want to encourage an independent candidacy."

Others who have indicated they plan to attend the one-day session include William Cohen, former Republican senator from Maine and defense secretary in the second Clinton administration; Alan Dixon, former Democratic senator from Illinois; Bob Graham, former Democratic senator from Florida; Jim Leach, former Republican congressman from Iowa; Susan Eisenhower, a political consultant and granddaughter of former President Eisenhower; David Abshire, president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency; and Edward Perkins, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Bloomberg, a former Democrat who was elected mayor of New York as a Republican, left the GOP over the summer to become an independent. While disclaiming any plan to run for president in 2008, he has continued to fuel speculation by traveling widely and speaking out on domestic and international issues. The mayor, a billionaire many times over, presumably could self-finance even a late-starting candidacy. "As mayor, he has seen far too often how hyperpartisanship in Washington has gotten in the way of making progress on a host of issues," said Bloomberg's press secretary, Stu Loeser. "He looks forward to sitting down and discussing this with other leaders."

Until plans for the meeting were disclosed, the most concrete public move toward any kind of independent candidacy was by Unity08, a group planning an online nominating convention to pick either an independent candidate or a ticket combining a Republican and a Democrat. The sponsors, an eclectic mix of consultants who have worked for candidates ranging from Democrat Jimmy Carter to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., have not aligned with a specific prospect.

Some people with high-level political and governmental credentials are moving to put muscle behind the new effort. A letter from Nunn and Boren sent to those who plan to attend the Jan. 7 session said "our political system is, at the least, badly bent and many are concluding that it is broken at a time ... America must lead boldly at home and abroad. Partisan polarization is preventing us from uniting to meet the challenges that we must face if we are to prevent further erosion in America's power of leadership and example."

At the session, Boren said, participants will try to draft a statement on such issues as the need to "rebuild and reconfigure our military forces" and restoring U.S. credibility in the world. "Today, we are a house divided," the letter said. "We believe that the next president must be able to call for a unity of effort by choosing the best talent available — without regard to political party — to help lead our nation."
The list of potential attendees *does* appear to contain the names of actual adults, rather than a bunch of whiny Tranzis. Except these were all the folks in charge when Osama was setting up shop. Your thoughts?
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Home Front: Politix
Just in case you're nostalgic for the Clinton presidency, . . .
2007-05-29
Jim Geraghty

From Bob Shrum's book, "No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner" p. 210-211:

Clinton announced in October and stories like this, accurate or not, were everywhere with political insiders and the press. Pamela Harriman told me she'd always liked Clinton, admired his political skills, but frankly, he had "a zipper problem." She recalled how he'd stayed over at her Georgetown home several times, and on one occasion come in late with a woman and they spent the night together. Pamela was hardly a prude, but she was angry with Clinton: it was reckless, just the kind of thing that destroyed Gary Hart. She knew Hillary well and she didn't like her own home being used that way."

Page 212:

I ran into Don Sweitzer, a Democratic operative who was close to DNC chairman Ron Brown. Naturally, we started talking about the coming presidential race. He told me that at a recent party confab, Bill Clinton had spied Ron Brown's daughter in the audience, didn't know who she was, and tried to pick her up — or as Sweitzer put it, "hit" on her.

It turns out Shrum repeating what Sweitzer told him to George McGovern would have major aftershocks. Page 223:

The enmity, I discovered, was real. When Carville suggested that I be brought on board after Kerrey's withdrawal, Hillary had responded with an angry no and then stopped talking to him for several days. "James was sent to Siberia," Begala told me afterwards.

Gee, why would anyone be nervous about this marriage being back in the White House?
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Home Front: Politix
What the US Needs is a Liberal Hawk
2006-11-08
America desperately needs a new generation of defense Democrats, liberals with clear heads and sharp swords. America needs them now. Sam Nunn is retired. Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson is dead. Gary Hart, now billing himself as a defense guru, helped kill Scoop politically in 1972 and 1976. Richard Perle, still a registered Democrat, is anathematized by liberals as a prince of darkness, instead of the defense whiz he is.

But no major Democrats have publicly condemned Murray's outrage. Silence doesn't cut it, folks. Perhaps a stonewall prevents "political damage" to her, but it continues to seed deep doubts about Democrats on national security. Sure, in a well wrought counter-terror strategy, daycare centers can complement destroyers, but that wasn't Murray's message.

A U.S. senator's (Patty Murray) office so out of touch that it doesn't know Al Qaeda's and Jemaah Islamiya's game is inexcusable. The general lack of critique from the national media also suggests a national media culture still not aware of 9-11's historic challenge.

Hey Liberalhawk, they're calling on you to run for President!
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Home Front: Politix
DC Will Host 'Take Back America' FoolFest
2006-06-13
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Toby Chaudhuri or Noreen Nielsen, 202-955-xxxx, both of Campaign for America's Future
My breath is baited...
News Advisory:
-- Thousands of Progressives to Gather Monday for 3-Day Conference to 'Take Back America'
Swoon...
-- Organizers Announce Opening Day Media Events Schedule
Kool Aid Kulinary Tips at 9:00...
The Campaign for America's Future today released details for the opening day of the organization's "Take Back America" conference. More than 2 thousand progressive leaders and activists will gather at the Washington Hilton on Monday for the first day of the annual event.
How "progressive" are they? "Hang onto your wallet, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"
Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage and Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg will hold a morning news conference to release an election-year message guide and brief reporters about highlights of the gathering. Progressive leaders will also kick-off events to outline a bold "Agenda for the Common Good" during the conference's opening luncheon.
Ah, the "Common Good" - yep, this is going to be expensive...
Actor and environmentalist Robert Redford, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Rep. Barbara Lee (news, bio, voting record) (D-Calif.), Rep. Bennie Thompson (news, bio, voting record) (D-Miss.), AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and many others will join Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey to begin outlining bold initiatives that make up a progressive agenda that promotes the "common good."
Swoon II.

Agenda / Schedule at linky. There's even a session on "the progressive promise and conservative collapse"! Enjoy! Delousing available upon request - at additional cost, I'm sure.
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Iraq
SAS setting IEDs in Iraq?
2006-03-15
I was web browsing and came across a reference to this Gary Hart post on Huffington. It is, of course, preposterous drivel, but when I was looking through the moonbat comments, I came across this:
To find who is responsible for the mayhem of secretarian violence, you have to look at the history and who actually will benefit from such violence.
Arab conspiracy theorists are fond of this line of argument, since it involves not looking at who's actually doing the violence...
The British when they were the greatest power in the world used 'divide and conquer' to subjugate its subject.
So'd the Romans and the Persians and most everybody who's ever conquered anybody else...
It divided the local population and made them wary of each other. In the case of Iraq, US is illegally occupying the country through its illegal war.
That particular cant describes the writer as a moonbat...
Coughing Anus Kofi Annan stated that the Iraq war was illegal.
Yeah, and if the World Leader says it is illegal, it is illegal.
Kofi also sez there's not much wrong with the UN, and none of it happened on his watch...
As Danial Pipes stated in his blog, the secretarian violence in Iraq was a good thing for US.
Does any Rantburger believe that Pipes said this?
Probably someone would have noticed...
The British SAS men with Arab clothing was arrested with a car full of explosives and remote detonators in Basra.
WTF?? Has anyone heard of this event?
Made up out of whole cloth, as far as I know...
They were on a bombing mission against Shiite civilians to place a blame on Sunni insurgents.
Do these people actually believe the SAS, that venerated and honored unit of SPECOPS warriors, is committing acts of pure terror? I mean, what kind of worldview do you need to actually believe that? Sheesh.
I am of the opinion that the current sectarian violence was a product of US/British/Israeli military operations to divide the Iraqis.
Gotta get the Joooos in there somewhere.
The writer's expressing his opinion. It's a stupid opinion, but I guess it's his.
The history and evidence seems to point to that direction.
history? evidence?? Amazing.
Who benefits the most in dividing Iraq so that the previous oil can be reapt for the benefit of occupying forces.?
'previous oil'? What the F*#K is that? And 'reapt'? Like Sowt? 'benefit'? Like when the US import fuel from Kuwait and Turkey and paying top dollar? He seems to be able to read, but where is the getting this from? Amazing. May God save our nation from citizens like him
We're back to "it's all about oil." The writer has a set of expectations about the same size and shape as Procrustes' bed. He's not real big on empirical observation because it takes too much effort, so he goes with what he wants to believe. His opinion can be discounted.
/rant
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Iraq
US Army in Jeopardy in Iraq
2006-03-13
Gary Hart represented the State of Colorado in the United States Senate from 1975 to 1987. In 1984 and 1988, he was a candidate for his party's nomination for President (which ended when he was photographed with a bimbo on his lap).

In 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Russia and, after success at the battle of Borodino, marched on and occupied Moscow. Napoleon and his generals took over the palaces of the court princes and great houses of the mighty boyars.
No doubt a reference to US troops camping in Saddam's palaces
Sadly for Napoleon, the Russians had different plans for their nation. Within days after abandoning their city to the French army, they torched their own palaces, homes, enterprises, and cathedrals.
The looting and burning of Baghdad after our invasion are the same thing, I guess
They burned Moscow down around Napoleon. Denied his last great triumph, the disappointed emperor abandoned Moscow and started home. Along the way, he lost the world's most powerful army.
So, we need to watch out or we'll get caught in the Brutal Iraqi Winter?
Recently one of Islamic Shi'ites' most revered sites, the golden mosque at Samarra, was destroyed by sectarian enemies. By this act and the reprisals that followed, Iraq moved a substantial step closer to civil war. Though a remote, but real, possibility, an Iraqi civil war could cost the United States its army.
Very remote, but by all means, continue..
Hopefully, leaders are planning for this possibility. If sectarian violence escalates further, US troops must be withdrawn from patrol and confined to their barracks and garrisons.
Pentagon has already said Iraqi forces will take the lead, we'll provide backup.
Mass transport must be mustered for rapid withdrawal of those troops from volatile cities in the explosive central region of Iraq.
"Run away!"
Intensive diplomatic efforts must be focused on preventing an Iraqi civil war from spreading to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria.
Well, Jordan would be bad. Civil war in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria would boost popcorn sales in the Rantburg lunch room
Such a potential could make the greater Middle East a tinder box for years, if not decades, to come.
"could make"? It's been a tinderbox for centuries!
But the first concern must be the safety of US forces. It is strange to contemplate the possibility that the greatest army in world history could be slaughtered in a Middle East conflagration.
Very strange, only a dimocrate would contemplate it.
But prudent commanders have no choice but to plan for this danger.
Well, sure. We always plan for everything
In greatest danger are the units in the Sunni central region cities. They are in real jeopardy if tens of thousands of angry Sunni and Shi'ite citizens, supported by their sectarian militias, surround and then overrun those units before they can be withdrawn.
In a real Iraqi civil war, tens of thousands of angry Shi'ite, supported by their sectarian militias, would be attacking Sunni citizens, who would be running to our troops for protection. Anyone wanting to try and overrun our troops will get wacked.
The United States lost one war not too long ago in Vietnam.
From Napoleon in Moscow to Vietnam, you just knew he'd make that leap
Conditions are taking shape that could result in the same outcome in Iraq.
We've got the same Democrat's calling for us to cut and run, the same liberal press calling our troops war criminals, etc...
Not to plan now for this apocalyptic possibility would be tantamount to criminal neglect on the part of our political and military leadership.

A major part of the dilemma we have created is the result of failure to know the history and complex culture of Iraq. As we refused to learn from the French experience in Indochina, we also failed to learn from the British experience in Iraq.
You mean the British tactic of making countries as they went, drawing up borders without regard for tribal divisions, creating puppet governments with a hand-picked strongman, and setting the stage for future conflicts? Those tactics?
We are on the cusp of religion and antique hatred overtaking whatever latent instincts toward democracy we may have relied on or tried to instill. We face the reemergence of 11th-century Assassins and 17th-century ethnic fundamentalism arising to replace a century of ideology -- imperialism, fascism, and communism.
Uh, Gary? What do you think we've doing there if not fighting those 11th-century Assassins, now called Taliban, al-Qaeda, etc?
The character of warfare and violence is being transformed. The warfare of the future is not World War II, or even Korea or Vietnam. It is Mogadishu and Fallujah -- low-intensity conflict among tribes, clans, and gangs. We are not prepared for that kind of warfare.
Don't get out much, do you Gary?

The United States is in danger of finding combat forces trapped in a civil war that they cannot prevent, control, or win. America's army is in danger, and that danger is possibly just around the corner.
"DOOM! QUAGMIRE! VIETNAM! MOSCOW!"
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