Greg:

I spent some time in the Middle East, with Haliburton being one of my
clients, amongst others. Sure, _some_ of the $$ goes back to the US in
the form of jobs. A good chunk of it goes back to the US in terms of
profits for the various companies. I suppose it could be argued that
those profits are spent in the US, so that could be a good thing as
well.

At the same time, the significant majority of the money is spent
in-country/in region for support services, labor, materials, etc.. Such
as the gasoline purchased at $0.73/gallon in Kuwait City and resold to
the US Military in Iraq (400 miles away) for $3.02 or so. I would
suggest that if 100% of this money were spent in the US for things that
actually benefit US citizens directly, perhaps the country as a whole
would be better for it? Just a thought.

It also gripes me some that the US Military is required to pay a 414%
mark-up for fuel and at the same time cannot deliver proper equipment
to the troops on the ground. Does it bother you that American Troops
are _still_ forced to scavenge junk yards for pieces of steel to
fabricate into armor? Does it bother you that private citizens, parents
and Veterans Groups are _still_ purchasing body armor OTC and sending
it to our military in Iraq because they are not getting that protection
directly? Does it bother you that the "military intervention" (since
war has not been declared) is neither fish-nor-fowl? That is, it is not
being pursued with any clear operating strategy and certainly no exit
strategy other than amorphous, ill-defined goals? There are not enough
troops to provide any level of safety either for common citizens or
even the troops themselves. There are too many not to provide regular
and easy targets to the tune of about 2.7 per day, on average,
fatalities. Not to mentioned wounded and crippled, not to mention US
citizens as private contractors in the region. And certainly not to
mention the innocent Iraqi citizens killed for no other reason than by
being in the wrong place at the wrong time... many of them even while
attempting to work for the overall betterment of their nation.

Introducing Democracy: What a naive and silly hope. A country
consisting of four rejected groups warring for over 1000 years, created
by the British and held together by a "strong-man" form of Government.
Don't the Balkans have ANY meaning any more? What happened when Tito
died? And what is the results today some 25 years later? It won't take
any 25 years in Iraq as the factions have hated each other for far
longer and the fights have been much more bitter.

The Shi'a were rejected by the Saudis.
The Sunn'a were rejected by the Iranians.
The Kurds were rejected by the Turks.
The Druze were rejected by the Jordanians (and are the forgotten sect
in the equation).

They all want homelands. They all more-or-less had tribal autonomy
before the Brits came along. They have all been fighting each other to
one degree or another for well over 1000 years. The parties are playing
the game, some even sincerely, until the 900 pound gorilla leaves. Then
you will see the reality of that region at the fullest. I truly hope to
be pleasantly surprised. I do not expect to be.

And we have not even begun to discuss the other countries in the
region. Iran (Farsi-speakers and NOT Arabs) fear a strong Iraq, Shi'a
or otherwise. The Saudis fear a Shi'a state to their immediate north,
especially one that is fundamentalist. The Turks are flatly terrified
of any sort of autonomous Kurdish zone on their southern border. And
the Jordanians are caught in a vice between whatever and Israel. It
ain't nohow pretty.

We need to quit mindlessly waving the flag and get down to cases as to
what _CAN_ be done. Within that range what _SHOULD _ be done, and
within that range, how much we are willing to suffer as a nation to
accomplish that. Sadly, however badly the war was conceived and whether
or not the so-called intelligence was manipulated maliciously or not,
the US is in there, by its presence it OWES that poor crushed country a
good result, yet that getting to that result appears to be beyond the
national will to deliver, even by those most actively defending our
presence there.

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA