A side note re: Iraq disengagement. Cheney, Rummy and Condi

[pinto]

are all Reagan era cold war alumni. Neocon ideologues. Political, military and academic Russian specialists. In their world view, cold war victors.

That aside, they are also intimately familiar with the Russian experience in Afghanistan. The Russian loss there must have been seen as an opportunity to establish a dominant American role in the arc of the Caucasus.

That view still holds sway at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I think, regardless of the realities on the ground.

But, they were players then and know very well how it could likely go today.

None of them will willingly sign off on our disengagement from Iraq. Or any disengagement from Central Asia, for that matter.

Many of us tend to allude to our Vietnam experience in relation to Iraq today. We are wrong.

This Administration isn't worried about another Vietnam...they're worried about an American Afghanistan. I think they will do anything they can to deny that probability.

[Sherman A1]

1. Interesting view

you could very well be correct.