Subject: 8th AF Commander rebukes Hollywood
From: "Emmanuel Gustin"
Date: 7/18/2004 1:01 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

"Leslie Swartz" wrote in message
...

. . . so you're still siding with Joe Wilson, Noam Chomsky, Dick
BenVeniste, and the Dixie Chicks?

For those whose battle cry is "The Truth Will Come Out!" remember- even
after the truth does begin to come out, there will always be those who
*choose* to side with the Forces of Darkness.

This kind of drivel is, alas, the predictable consequence of
the efforts of Moore and other conspiracy theorists. I see
a certain poetic justice in the neo-conservatives being
attacked by people who have a little respect for truth, and
as little regard for reality, as they themselves. However,
people throwing bricks to each other from the heights of
cloud-cuckoo land doesn't really help.

Despite Moore's and efforts to portray him as such, George
W. Bush isn't Dart Vader. He is just an appallingly incompetent
leader. He started by ignoring the problem, then when disaster
struck he burst out in flurry of misguided activity, calculated
more to bring fear to his own people than to protect them. The
he first sent out his troops to fight or more or less justified war
in Afghanistan, but did a half-botched job in finishing the
business there. Afterwards he insisted on sending his forces
towards a war in Iraq, which he chose to fight despite horribly
bad intelligence, a failure of the political preparation, a total
absence of serious planning for the post-conquest phase, and
a shortage of troops to get the work done. After a long series
of disasters he decided to shift to problem onto someone else's
shoulders, but in typical style he couldn't bring himself to really
relinquish the power in Iraq, nor to revise his policies.

At the end several years of effort, he has managed to get
his anti-terrorist policies condemned by his Middle-East
specialists, a host of retired generals, most of America's
allies, the media, the Pope and the Supreme Court, in no
particular order. Terrorism is increasing; the power of the
USA is reaching its limit, with the Army forced to shift
troops from one crisis area to another to plug the gaps.
Unflinchingly, he has shown himself incapable of admitting
error, and actually wants to pursue this set of policies for
four more years.

There is a rule in strategy which could be called the law of
mutual compensation of incompetence and numbers. It takes
a highly competent war leader to win a battle against an superior
enemy, but a less competent war leader may see his faults
compensated by numerical superiority. The level of George
W. Bush' incompetence is such that it may actually outweigh
the overwhelming superiority in military strength, economic
power, and democratic credibility of the world's only remaining
superpower. The "war on terror" is currently being won by the
terrorists; never have they been so active and have they had
such impact on global politics. A recovery is still possible,
but if this madness goes on, large parts of the World may have
to be conceded to the forces of islamitic radicalism.

--
Emmanuel Gustin


History has shown that there is no plan, no matter how brilliant that Bush
can't screw up. But he has been successful at deluding at least half the
American people until now. It will all change in November


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer