[CLUE-Talk] Media's Iraq casualties put into perspective

[Matt Gushee]

On Wed, Jul 02, 2003 at 10:10:40PM -0600, Timothy C. Klein wrote:
> > 
> > An excerpt from the op-ed in the July 1 New York Post by Ralph
> > Peter, identified as "a retired Army officer and the author, most
> > recently, of Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World":
> 
> Thanks for the story, Kevin.
> 
> While the media can get carried away with the doom and gloom, this guy's
> picture of Iraq is *way* too rosy from what I have read.  There are
> real problems in the reconstruction.  Can we solve them?  Yeah.  Is it a
> 'quagmire?' No.

Well, quagmires, like Vietnam for us or Afghanistan for the Soviets (and
for us next? remember, we're still far from out of there), tend to start
small--that's why they're called quagmires.

We may indeed be able to solve some of those problems, but first those
in charge have to admit that there are problems. And there are some
problems--such as who is allowed to run for office in--that we probably
should just leave up to the Iraqi people.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee at havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)