[Rhodes22-list] Fwd: Hello from Iraqi Kurdistan!

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Philip,
 
Thanks for your response, generally I think we’re in agreement.  I  gather 
from your reply the 500 lbs found were chem not bio, so it’s really not a  lot 
on the scale of things.  Also, residuals were found, but I’m not sure  the 
residuals were from an active fabrication process, or whether they date from  
their much earlier effort (~ 10 yrs ago) when they were making and using  WMD.  I 
didn’t know they included Sarin, VX, & mustard, thanks for that  info.
 
Not to belabor the issue, but do you know whether the 500 lb reported was  
weapons grade chemicals, or was it the weight of the ordnance that contained the 
 chemical materials and the chemicals?  If they were reporting the full  
weight of the ordnance(rocket or artillery rounds) in the 500 lb, there really  is 
little chem agent involved and we’d be talking about just a very few  rounds. 
 I’m not suggesting anyone pulled a fast one, but if they  discovered the 
material already in ordnance, the easy and safe thing might be to  just weigh the 
entire round, that’s what I’d do; but that would really  exaggerate the 
importance of the 500 lb claim. 
 
Regarding your statement "there is no doubt he had them", I don't think  
anyone would dispute you.  The important thing to consider however is when  did he 
have them prior to our invasion.  If you read the summary of the  de-briefs 
in the book Cobra II (and if you believe the de-briefs) his military  
leadership reported he told them well before our invasion ( I think  maybe 2 years 
before) that he didn't have any WMD, that he'd gotten rid of  them, but he wasn't 
going to tell the world because he had an idea called  "doubtful deterrence" 
where if the world, particularly the Iranians, weren't  sure that he didn't 
have any, they would leave him alone.  Actually, our  forces were very concerned 
about his chem/bio also, so to that extent his  doubtful deterrence affected 
us to.  Whatever, it may be right or wrong,  but I expect the debriefs are 
what's going into the historical record unless we  find some WMD, and we've been 
looking for a while.
 
I gather we’re in agreement regarding the invasion of Iraq, it was a  
mistake.  The challenge is how to get out alive and with some  dignity.  You say the 
top priority is winning, I think our top priority  should be saving the lives 
and limbs of American servicemen.  I’m not sure  it’s possible to win Iraq in 
a conventional sense - if the average Iraqi doesn’t  resent us, he should be 
close to resenting us.  As per my prior post to  you, if you put yourself in 
the position of that Iraqi citizen - not the current  leadership or 
ex-leadership, the average citizen - I think you’ll see room for  resentment and 
frustration directed to US forces as invaders and  occupiers.  Clearly, we’ve killed a 
lot of Iraqis -and they all have family  - we’ve destroyed a lot of property, 
we’ve enabled the worst kinds of  lawlessness on a grand scale, we’ve 
trashed their economy - that's not unique to  us, I expect all military invasions 
and occupations evolve along those lines,  especially those that weren't well 
thought through.   If you accept my  point regarding frustration and resentment 
you can understand why the guerrillas  are succeeding in hiding among the 
population, and why some aggrieved families  might be party to attacks on US 
troops.  You might accept that these  insurgent attacks are not the work of a few 
residual thugs, as Ed has suggested,  but instead involve a lot of people, per
haps in an uncoordinated way, all across  their country - which may be what the 
US military report when they say the  country is on the brink of a civil war. 
 I suspect what's evolving in  Iraq is a new national sport called “repel the 
invaders” - which is the  sport that would quickly evolve here in the US if 
another country invaded our  turf regardless of their noble motives (that was 
the PRC example in my post to  you).   I think that if the indigenous 
population are intimidated,  ambivalent, or hostile and resentful the guerrilla 
movement will succeed -  as it did in Viet Nam - unless the occupiers are willing to 
be extraordinarily  violent and brutal to the populace, which we're not. This 
assessment of the  situation is substantially different from the  
Administration cheerleaders, but I think it hits the evolving record  pretty well.  It 
also highlights why I don't think we're going to "win" in  Iraq in any 
conventional way;  I expect that too many Iraqi's resent  our presence, they will host 
the guerrilla opposition, and the few troops we've  brought to bear on the 
problem aren't enough to handle the guerrilla  opposition.  Seems to me the surest 
way to "win" in Iraq (i.e. bring  peace to the country) is to declare victory 
(i.e. no WMDs) and withdraw  entirely, or withdraw to enclaves, and leave 
Iraq to the Iraqis. It ends  the repel-the-invaders game and the guerrilla 
attacks on our  troops.  I could be wrong.  
 
Re Wilson: I completely agree with your assessment re Wilson’s character,  
however I have always regarded the Wilson issue as a sideshow.  I'm not  ducking 
the issue, the guy lied and that's serious, but yellow cake in Africa  isn't 
high on my list of concerns because it takes years and decades for yellow  
cake in Africa to translate to a nuke - I want to get Al Quaidha  now, before 
they do more damage.  Forget Wilson, we agree he’s a  turkey.
 
Regarding $25K to Palestinian bombers - I think, but am not sure, that  Syria 
is still on board with that without Iraq.  You might have better  info.
 
Thanks again for your response and info re the chem agents found, and I’d  be 
curious to know whether the 500 lb represented just chemicals, just warheads, 
 or entire rounds, or a mix of all of the above.
 
Dave