Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
Now we are making progress.
In the immortal words of Tonto, "What is this 'we' stuff, White Man?" WE -- J Wolfsberger and I were there, you're just catching up and trying to look like you were there all along...
It is not a matter of who will "forget this fact" but rather that the US should tell all people they deal with politically, economically, militarily that at best the word of the United States of America is only good for less than two years at most (depending where it falls in the election cycle). After that all bets are off.
See -- you still don't get it. That's only true in some cases, not so in others -- as I've pointed out before (Monroe Doctrine, freedom os the seas...) and while on the one hand, it's not up to the US to tell anyone else in the World how the US policy machine operates, on another, that's broad public knowledge easily available to all. If one does not understand it, that's one's own fault...

As for dealing with it, not all that difficult. all it take is a little forethought (an item apparently in worldwide short supply nowadays, probably as a result of short attention spans caused by watching too much TV... ).
The world has learned this the hard way... now it is up to US citizens to understand the implication of their inability "to be as good as their word".
Again, you still don't understand. We know that. We understand. We're slightly sorry you don't get it -- but only slightly.

Part 2:
Quite frankly Ken, this is the Homer Simpson approach to foreign policy. He said: {Quote:}“Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”
Wouldn't know about Homer, don't watch Television. Do know that's not what I said -- that was:

""I contend that if failure cannot be assessed as highly improbable, then in most circumstances, the use of force should not be contemplated -- that's particularly true if the potential for great harm from such is present as it certainly was in this case. I also suggest the western gentrification has allowed a certain lack of political will to invade all operations of this nature and that opponents logically take advantage of that weakness. It is IMO unwise to play to the strengths of ones opponents. Better to devise alternative plans."" (Emphasis added /kw)
The trick is to get the implementation right.
Well, yeah -- that's why I said devise alternate plans. Not that difficult a concept, one would think...
To do that maybe America needs to start to elect competent presidents, maybe needs to turn the State Department inside out, close the CIA down and sadly maybe the military needs to get a good shake up as well.
I agree but that's not going to happen as there is no pressing need -- the fact that you and I see a need (as do many others) is not adequate cause to move the enormous Pachyderm that is the US government.
Currently its a pretty pathetic situation.
Yep. That or close to it.

Look at the bright side -- it at least gives you something to fruitlessly fulminate about.