O.T. - On Target...

Apples and oranges. Try another analogy.

Actually, it was. Iraq failed to comply with the provisions of the Gulf War cease-fire and we had every right to resume hostilities for that reason alone.

You can't know that bin Laden's in Afghanistan. As for funding, al Qaeda gets funding from lots of sources and we (meaning the broader coalition in the GWOT) are going after all of them.

Who just happened to be a former president. Do you actually mean to imply that it's okay for a nation's leader to plot the assasination of a former POTUS?? Would you have felt better about it if the target had been Carter, Ford, or Clinton instead?

(bunch of the usual great stuff from Al snipped)

I couldn't have said it any better, Al.

My home page:

" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

II'm considering Vancouver, NZ, or the Forest County rez for retirement myself. Kim M

Actually Iraq was the enemy and has been since the first Gulf War; you do remember that little unpleasantness that went on early in 1991, don't you? All the other provocations, non-cooperation with UNSCOM, lying (yes, they really DID lie again and again), etc, etc, aside, the Iraqis had been regularly engaging coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones in support of United Nations resolutions for several years. "Engaging" means firing antiaircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles at aircraft enforcing a United Nations mandated restricted airspace. Yes, I'd say that, in itself, makes them the enemy. My home page:

" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

Well, if you must invade SOMEBODY, go for the source of terrorism- The home of

15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers, the al Quaida piggy bank, Saudi Arabia. Kim M

Or, as Archie Bunker suggested in one episode, invade Mexico. We usually do well invading them. Kim M

That's not an answer, Al. That's a definition. How would our nuts and bolts foreign policy be different, and worse for the US? As far as US foreign policy being subject to the veto of foreign countries, I haven't heard any complaints from you about Israel's veto over foreign and some domestic policy. Kim M

There is a technical term for a former POTUS. It is called "citizen". He holds no office, and therefore cannot be assasinated, only murdered. Kim M

Well, that actually IS a good question, DC. As I said before, I don't think military experience should be a pivotal issue in the campaign. However, Senator Kerry has made it one; the main one, in fact.

Whether one believes Kerry earned those decorations or not aside as an entire separate issue, that act of thowing his decorations aay still incenses me. He was awarded medals for wounds and valor (many of the same ones I still proudly wear on my uniform today, some 36 years after the fact). When he came home and threw them over the White House fence; and it doesn't matter if they were his medals, ribbons, or the sleazy claim of throwing someone else's (isn't THAT just like him) it was a symbolic act to divest himself of those honors.

While I personally despise those actions as well as his entire behavior related to the war, it was his right to protest and to throw his medals away. However, from that point on, he should have no further right or the honor or benefit of them; one can't give back a lottery prize then, 30 plus years later say he now wants the benefits of same. If I had done that, I would not, in good conscience, feel entitled to wear those decorations on my uniform and any honorable man of conviction would feel the same. Kerry has chosen to brag up his (very short) Vietnam tour and make it a centerpiece of his campaign and his credentials for fitness to be President but he seems to have amnesia about his anti-war activities after he came home (and no one should think these small points aren't lost on most Vietnam vets). Since, with the first part of the equation he opened Pandora's Box; the second part should be fair game as well. He's told us how great a sailor he was in those four months but he still owes the American people, at the very least, an explanation of his actions and motivations during his anti-war protesting period and should explain how that will help make him a better President as well.

My home page:

" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

As I stated in another post, it really doesn't matter if he threw awat HIS medas, HIS ribbons, or SOMEONE ELSE'S medals or ribbons, he made the symbolic act of divesting himself of his military awards and decorations. To then reclaim benefit from them later is insincere, hypocritical and dishonorable (oh, I guess I just described John Kerry, didn't I?).

My home page:

" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

Are you leaving soon? Can I help you pack your bags?

My home page:

" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

Oh, only murdered. Well, then, I guess that makes it all OK then, huh?

My home page:

" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

That must be why a former POTUS draws a federal pension, a taxpayer-funded office and staff, and Secret Service protection....

Nice try, but here's the definition of "assassination":

.

[Note to self: 'Your spellchecker sucks.....'] ;-p

"Technically", it's murder either way, isn't it?..

I don't know any other way to say it than as I stated above.

That's because my brain is not encumbered by a tinfoil hat....

There's no evidence that the Saudi *government* was complicit in

9-11. In any case, that's a red herring. I've never so much as insinuated that Iraq was complicit in 9-11 either - we invaded Iraq for other, in my view, legitimate reasons.

Yeah, let's base our foreign policy on the rants of a fictional TV character. That'll show the world, all right!