On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 11:26:43 -0700 (PDT), Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > You talk all the time about Kosovo. Do you know > _anything_ about the war? It doesn't seem like it. > Or what we did in Iraq, for that matter. Here's one > ...Milosevic continued to run Serbia for quite a while > after our Kosovo campaign. That might have made a > difference. Serbia was a bitty country with the > economic resources of my college roommates. Iraq has > some of the largest oil reserves in the world. > Yugoslavia is in the middle of Europe, with democratic > countries nearby. The nearest democracy to Iraq is > Israel. Our goal in the Kosovo war was to persuade > the Serbian government not to conduct genocide in > Kosovo. Our goal in Iraq was to overthrow the Iraqi > government. All of that just for starters. I know > that somewhere, as you acquired such extensive > expertise in national security affairs, you might have > picked up an understanding that different wars require > different tactics. Iraq <> Kosovo. Therefore > prolonged air bombardment might not have gotten what > we wanted. > > One final point. You continually talk about Kosovo as > a well-conducted campaign. Within limits, I agree, > although, _knowing something about that campaign_, I > give Wesley Clark far less credit than you do for it. > Could you name another military figure involved in the > campaign, btw? Just out of curiosity. But John > Keegan, often called the finest military historian of > his generation (that is, again, Dr. Brin, someone who > knows what he is talking about - a useful > characteristic), described a recent war conducted by > the US as the most successful war ever fought by a > democracy against a dictatorship.
John Keegan is called "a brilliant military historian" on the Free Republic website. No wonder you often seem so misinformed, you are getting your info from Freepers! www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/542279/posts Other people who have looked at his work says he seems to have problems with little things called facts. http://hnn.us/articles/1792.html Despite being a military historian and lecturer, Keegan has never been in the military or in battle himself as he often admits. <Too many sources to pick one.> The Iraq War, the book you seem to be referring to without mentioning by name, has been called a combination of "brilliance and idiocy." It was a book written to get quick sales and says the war was over when Bush unflurled the Mission Accomplished banner. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400041996/qid=1089575142/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-0279083-4911355 > Except he wasn't > referring to Kosovo. He was referring to our recent > campaign against Saddam. But I'm sure that, like > everyone else who disagrees with you, he's just a > partisan hack. Actually, he is the conservative military writer the the UK Independent who thinks we have to go after Islam because this terrorist war is "in their nature." http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s387060.htm >I would at least think, Dr. Brin, > given the extent to which your statements during the > main campaign itself were, ummm, not supported by > events, you'd be a little more cautious treading on a > field that's just a _little bit_ outside your area of > expertise. Your expertise lately seems to be partisan slash attacks using Freeper sources and arguments. > > I will continue this discussion if it seems you're > interested in discussing, not lecturing from a > position of Olympian ignorance. > Olympian hubris thy name is neo-con. Gary Denton -- #1 on google for liberal news _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
