And you’re right - Bush went in on the cheap, but not to avoid “collateral damage” (there would have been less had we gone all-out), but to avoid the expenditure of political capital required to go all-out. Going all-out would have required a draft and massive up-front expenditures. Bush sold the war as cheap and easy, and sure enough it was neither. It’s a nice cop-out for Bush supporters to assume that Bush was assuaging our humanity - our better, more liberal, angels - but you’d have to be a fool to really believe that. It was just more typical conservative comic book universe nonsense that a war of such magnitude could be cheap and easy.

JMJ

Yes, folks, murdering millions of innocent people is a great “solution.” Sound familiar?

So did you deliberately miss Eric’s point or accidentally? he was responding to the following
‘But Bush is looking for the quickest solution that will make a few people that he cares about feel safe.’

He was making the point that Bush DID not take the quickest solution. As we have in all wars in recent years he took great pains to minimize the amount of collateral damage. That in my belief is a major part of why they had the small residual force and the ridiculous rules of engagement prior to the surge. Had we treated this war the way we handled WWII and all other wars prior to Korea the problems after defeating Saddam would not have occurred and His approval ratings would not be in the toilet. Unfortunately we now have a society that believes you can fight a war with no casualties and not collateral damage so anythign other than that is seen as a disaster.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love a good fantasy flick, but to read as much into this as you guys have here is lunacy.

I’ve always said that conservatives live in a comic book universe and am rather saddened to see a fellow liberal engaged in this inanity.

Here we see conservative comic-book epistemology in action…

“The quickest solution would be to turn Iran and Syria into 50,000 hole golf courses.”

Yes, folks, murdering millions of innocent people is a great “solution.” Sound familiar?

“Soaring oil and food prices are not the fault of America. China and India are demanding more.”

Yes folks, China and India have increased world demand for oil by 400% in the past seven years. Amazing, huh?

“As for the falling housing market, all speculative bubbles burst.”

Yes, except that people LIVE in houses, not abodes composed of stock shares taped together. Take the “speculation” out, and no bubble. And when one house forcloses, that’s less property taxes for the schools and cops and firemen, that’s falling values for all the neighbors houses, and all the less property taxes, that’s an invitation to crime and decay, and on and on. When the real estate market crashes it effects a heck of a lot more than just bad lenders and dumb buyers. But in the comic book universe, where all things are simple and childlike, only the bad guys suffer. Right?

This is what a comic-book view of the universe gets you - easy answers to complicated problems. The problem is, outside of basic arithmetic, most easy answers are wrong.

Holy adolescent worldview, Batman!

JMJ