just don’t expect to have any influence on what we do.

sounds kind of like one of those sports fans who so closely identifies with his team he refers to them as “us”. “We beat the redskins last week.” Oh, you did, did you? That’s funny. I don’t recall seeing you in uniform.

“We won the election! We have political capital we are going to spend! Whoooo!”

So, Alex, unless you won an election or work in the Whitehouse, perhaps as Karl Rove’s leatherslave, get a grip.

There is something positive in this confrontation Alex? I’m sorry I must have missed it, I was busy cleaning the blood out of my eyes.

Here’s a Hint: Attacking a country of no strategic importance in order to turn it into an al Qaeda playground and guarantee that it will be plunged into a civil war (an obvious outcome considering the “nation” of “Iraq” is an arbitrary line drawn around three groups of people who despise each other by British people who were glossing over their own crackheaded decisions of earlier decades)=a BAD DECISION.

Should this leave you anything to feel positive about as you continue your humble and noble search for middle ground? Well, there is this: most of the national and global malice directed at Bush and his ilk seems to be limited to them, their policies, their philosophies, and their activities. It has yet to fully extend to their extrapolitical supporters. There is as of yet no reason to assume that every GOP supporter is also a criminal, a spy, an anti-intellectual vandal, a dishonest, amoral Machiavellian racketeer, a senseless bungler and a bullying smart-ass who is actively dismantling the constitutional rule of law in my country. No reason at all. Surely we can agree on that?

That sort of hatred-based criticism is not only absolutely useless, but counterproductive to even your own supposed goals.

What are my goals, chief?

It demonstrates quite clearly that you’re not opposed to any one aspect of the ongoing operations, but to the entire concept of US troops being in Iraq.

and?

I have a much better understanding of the situation on the ground than you could ever hope to aquire

sorry, we’ll need some kind of proof. or else don’t try to puff yourself up.

However, your constant criticism of EVERY aspect of the operations makes it clear that you won’t be happy untill all operations cease.

that or some semblance of competence thus-far beyond the reach of the clowns in power.

And more than likely, if we were to pull out today you’d then proceed to criticize us for letting Iraq descend into civil war.

i have some news for you: they are in civil war. and even if you want to believe otherwise, i’m sorry. but either way, the bush administration policies have closed off many options. the decision to go to war unprepared in the first place sealed this fate.

In other words, there’s absolutely nothing we can do to please you.

we? are you in the administration?

It’s like the Palestine/Israel debate – it’s become quite clear over time that the majority of Israel’s critics won’t be happy untill Israel ceases to exist.

it’s always productive to use that as an example. always.

YOU won’t be happy untill Bush is out of office

that’s not even true. i’ll be really happy if the dems manage not to screw up the elections and get subpoena power. that would be 2 years before C+ Augustus is out of office.

instead of making an effort to find some middle-ground, you cling to your extremeist ideology as if it were not only realistic but the only possible solution.

why again is it my responsibility to find this mythic middle ground? isn’t the president supposed to be the uniter not divider?

Keep it up if you want, just don’t expect to have any influence on what we do.

show me a non-republican who does have any influence on what “we” do?

That doesn’t mean that small-scale successes aren’t being made and reported on by the media; look at this month’s Atlantic if you want to see that in action.

I’m going to pull out a card that I very rarely use, because I feel that it isn’t generally conducive to conversation. In this case, however, I think it’s warranted.

I fought in that war, Alex, so you’ll forgive me if I think that your label of “armchair tactician” does not apply to me. I can tell you firsthand about how naive the mindset of our commanders was; everyone in the brass was convinced by the administration’s “We shall be greeted as liberators” dogma. The invasion was brutal and horrifying (as all armed conflict is) but it was a cakewalk by 20th century war standards. Caught between the notions of being liberators and being a small dynamic force, we had neither the training nor the personnel to win the peace afterwards.

And that’s why so many people, including many of those here at 1115 are negative about the war. If you think our couching of the war in critical terms is tiresome, realize that we only do it to counterpoint the constant unwarranted and unrealistic positivity of the Bush administration and the uncritical media mouthpieces that speak for them.

–A little late in the day to try to sound reasonable?
–Alex: the lean, mean, one-man loathe machine
–”I have no problem with well founded constructive criticizm” — try practicing what you preach, buddy
–”YOU won’t be happy untill Bush is out of office and the US ceases all international operations.” Not even close. First he has to be impeached, yes. (Where did “cease all international operations come from?” We just get out of Iraq and shut down Guantanamo.) Then we put Bush on public display in the Washington mall, in some appropriate 21st century version of the stocks, for 2 weeks. Then we let graduates of Abu Ghraib subject him to 4 weeks of the perfectly legal interrogation tactics we practiced there. He gets to sleep for 4 hours at that point. A quick extraordinary rendition later, we give the Guantanamo graduates equal rights for 4 weeks in some remote desert country or uninhabited island. Unsupervised. He gets to sleep once in a while, but all food intake is via force-feeding. Then it’s Cindy Sheehan’s turn. And then after that…
–Why do the JimCs and Alexes of this world always have such poor spelling skills?
–Mind-reading isn’t your forte, baby. Cease and desist.
–A merry christmas and a very happy new year to you too