Thank you Mr. Durbin

 Zanubiyah -

I agree - Dick Durbin's remarks are certainly worthy of praise!

As you say in your fine article, "That is a military victory.  Our military is not designed to patrol thier city streets nor is it designed to quell political strife.  It is now up to the Iraqis to find a solution on thier own, in thier own way.  In fact, to me, they are now in charge of thier own destiny."

Now, based on that most asute observation - don't you think it's time to start redeploying our troops?  

I belive the best option is to "re deploy", but 2 things make me think this might be the wrong move at this time.  However, I do not think that 21.000 soldiers is enough.  I also think that the recent event with Iran may be telling of an effort to broaden the conflict, and make it unsafe not to send in more soldiers to insure that the ones already there are not placed in more danger.  I also think this was done by design by Mr. Bush to make it harder to pull out.

he first is that President Bush made, and continue to make attempts to bate Iran into a "provocation" for direct conflict, to use as an excuse to bomb thier nuclear facilities.  I personally belive (of course as a cyber general) that just to be spiteful, they will also bomb Iran's oil resourse systems.   The second is that no matter what, Mr Bush will do whatever he wants, no matter the outcry from the American public, and his own people.  Clearly Mr. Bush and his close circle of "advisiors" do not care what the dissenters of his idea think.  I hear them asking of thier dissenters for a better plan.  Of course the "Iraq Study Group" offered a plan, and it was ignored. 

I think, and perhaps on purpose, he is placed the soldiers already there in more danger then they have ever been before, as bad as that was already.  By making threats, and acting to directly engage Iran in confrontation, it becomes clear to most in this region that the US is wanting to take over the whole region.  It makes American soldiers now the primary enemy, and while the soldiers are there, the Shi'a and Sunni can put thier anger for each other aside to fight thier "common enemy".  Not only is this an escalation in the number of troops going into Iraq, but it is also an escalation of the conflict itself into a wider region.  I am not sure that 21.000 troops will be nearly enough with all that has been laid on the plate to do.

Can you tell me how NOW, after Mr. Bush and his small posey have brought another dog into the fight, how we can justify just putting the few more soldiers into this conflict.  What if Iran takes him up on direct confrontation?  Besides taking out thier nuclear facilities, and thier "official army",(if he can) what is his plan for thier deep covert operations?  What consequense will using nuclear weapons of any yield, regardless of the target have on the rest of the world, especially by pre emtive strike?  And since Israel has made a threat to bomb the Iranian facilities already, how will the Islamic people take this act as a whole?  

I think that we Americans are sorely unprepared, and under informed as to the real plan that Mr. Bush has for our military.  And also, as he did in Iraq, he underestimated the response.  Unlike Viet Nam, in which the consequenses were regional, this conflict has the potencial to be a global disaster of unmeasurable scale, and not just militarily.

Ladies and gentlemen, within the last 24 hours, our world has become twice as dangerous as it was.  Welcome to the jungle.

Peace Be Unto You...and this time, I am not just ending with this, I mean it honestly.  We need all the hope we can muster in this most dark of time.

Zanubiyah.

Hoo-Ahhh, Tom Carter!  I've heard the savior was comin' back (the good news) but he was gonna be really pissed off (the bad news) but no one told me he was going to be an American named Tom.

Is that short for Tom-Tom?