Reply #10: For what it's worth . . . [View All]

[MrModerate]

It's not treeless (at least it wasn't when I was there). There're moderate-sized trees and a sort of grey-green brush ideal for hiding in (I suppose they could have cleared it last year, after I left).

With regard to the oil -- that ain't secure either. They blow up the pipelines and mortar both the existing facilities and any new ones anyone tries to build. Same as with the power supplies and the water systems.

It's a sizable country and they live there. The insurgents can walk the streets with no more likelihood of being killed than any other Iraqi (an unacceptably high risk, I admit). The bad guys can do whatever they please.

This comes as a surprise to our brilliant leaders but is what the rest of us -- those of us who were in the streets before the war -- predicted with uncanny accuracy.

I've always wondered why we, with access only to the press, were so right, and the Schimpanski regime, with access to the best intelligence money could buy, were so wrong. Any chance they're dumbf*cks?