Quote Originally Posted by John T. Fishel View Post
RA--
So your view of welfare economics 101 really depends on where and with whom you studied it.
I switched majors after my freshman year. Economics bored the heck out of me. I drew a bunch of charts and never got to the point where people had different opinions on the charts. But I know what happens when the government creates demand for ethnic militias in an environment with many unemployed. (I can draw the chart.

Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
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Anyone who gets wrapped around the axle over Mt. Suribachi is living in a strange time warp. Those days are gone, probably never to return. There has not been a full bore, total warfare type "unconditional surrender" war since WW II and there's unlikely to be one in the future.
Quote Originally Posted by Uboat509 View Post
Tribalism has dominated the ME for how many thousands of years? Getting rid of tribalism is going to take more than a few democratic votes.
No disrespect to Cavguy or anyone else who was there: fog of war, friction, enemy gets a vote, making the best out of a bad situation is what you need to do. Since everyone is so comfortable on this path, however, and I agree with the two above comments, let's follow the path to the end. Since expecting surrender and democracy was unrealistic - as per Ken and Uboat - wouldn't paying Saddam to not develop WMDs, and to not cooperate with terrorists, have saved billions of dollars and many lives?