This has been quite a good thread. I think Pepe's post was the best. My thoughts entirely.
Mr. Toad! I didn't mind your minor digression into 25 year old MacAllan - can't think why Creamo saw fit to be so rude. I know you would like to treat the current campaign as a "Missed Approach", and come back around in 6 months for another landing attempt. I don't think that's feasible at all. The time for negotiations ended when Saddam failed to comply with UN Resolutions when renewed demands were made by Dubya. On the day that forces began to be deployed to the Gulf, that day in my mind was when negotiations had come to an end.
You can't keep 240,000+ guys hanging around at combat ready status. Morale will sag. Maybe their level of fitness will suffer. In 1982, PM Margaret Thatcher took exactly that stance with Argentina over the Falklands. Galtieri had failed to vacate the islands, so UK forces were deployed. THEN Galtieri suggested that he would renegotiate - if the British task force turned back from its two-week voyage to the South Atlantic. Galtieri was about to find out that this lady was not for turning. And if the forces had turned back? Galtieri would have done a Saddam and started laying down new conditions. The would have been more fudge and muddle. Because of Thatcher's deciciveness, a brilliant campaign was executed with excellent results.
I remember all the pacifist whining from 1982. (Dowding is too young to remember it) Leftists like Tony Benn were advocating "no war", and various other peaceniks came up with slogans like "jaw-jaw is better than war-war". When will they learn that you cannot negotiate with dictators like Galtieri - and Saddam. A glance through the history books shows that undesirable dictators have had to be removed by force - Hitler, Napoleon, Galtieri. Saddam is about to become the next in a long line of them.
Let's learn from past events here. The 1982 Falklands war resulted in the loss of 252 British lives. The first phase of the current Gulf war in 1991 resulted in about 30 deaths when a canteen was hit by a Scud missile, and some accidental friendly fire deaths. Now, as then, I do not see the Iraq situation developing into a "long and bloody campaign with millions of dead Iraqis" - that's what the peaceniks would have us believe. I agree with Pepe - the longer we wait, the more time Saddam has to arrange for a preferential distribution of his WMD.
Ahoy Blitz! See you next month at the con.
