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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Sunil –<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>The same type of thing happened in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region> under
Johnson. Westmoreland lied about body counts, how the VC were constantly
outnumbered, how we were advancing, how the war would be over soon. That
was during 1967. Tet ’68 changed everything. It showed that
Westmoreland had been lying to Johnson. Johnson, unlike our current
president, resigned as felt that he had lied to the American people based upon
intelligence (and reports) provided to him by Westmoreland and his (Johnson’s)
cabinet. Johnson assumed the moral high ground, assumed full
responsibility, and withdrew from the 1968 election. I hated him for
withdrawing form the election. I felt that had he stuck it out, he would
have beaten Nixon and our troops would have been home a lot sooner than 1975.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Current estimations (discussed last night
on a news show, of which the name escapes me) are that we would require 150,000
troops on the ground in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>
for the next two years (at a MINIMUM).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>How many more body bags are we going to
fill before somebody at <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on">1600
Pennsylvania Avenue</st1:Street>, <st1:City w:st="on">Washington</st1:City> <st1:State
w:st="on">DC</st1:State></st1:address> assumes some level of responsibility
and decides it is time to bring our troops home?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Tom Hansen<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Moscow, Idaho<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>We could learn a lot from crayons: some are
sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are
different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box. </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
vision2020-bounces@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Sunil Ramalingam<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, January 26, 2005
2:10 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> vision2020@moscow.com<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> RE: [Vision2020] Happy
Birthday</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>You call
it 'harping,' and you can't point to a historical model because there isn't one
that works to support your theories. Maybe what you predict will take
place, but they're faith-based, and there's nothing in the past in that region
to suggest that the changes you hope for will occur. I guess we'll know
in a few years whether history is being made, as you hope, or repeated, as I
suspect. I think we're re-writing what the English wrought in the first
half of the last century.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>If
'democratizing <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>'
was the reason for the war, then we should have had a national discussion on
that very issue. Congress could have decided if we should invade another
country so that they could be a democracy (I'll set aside my opinions of the
arrogance of that view for now.) We could have honestly discussed the
costs of such a war. We could have addressed the fact that <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> didn't
pose a threat to our security.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>That's
not the discussion we had, and that wasn't the reason we were given.
Instead the administration focused on intelligence that told it what it wanted
to hear, and ignored the rest. Liars or incompetents? Are either to
be trusted?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>While I'm
harping ( and there I was thinking I was engaging in a dialog), do you disagree
with me on my statements regarding our privatization of <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
economy? How much are Iraqis benefitting from our grab?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Sunil<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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