Your reasoning is sound, and Mahan might argue you are exactly on topic.
Strategy.

The current strategy in Iraq will fail to either destroy his weapons of
mass destruction or remove him from office. We cannot put enough pressure
on him to accomplish these ends. He is not afraid of us.

Following one of the most successful military campaigns in history, we are
left with him – by choice. Now we must learn to deal with it.

This is further proof that our military is second to none and our
diplomats are second to everyone.

* * * * J B K * * * *

On Thu, 12 Feb 1998, Eric Bergerud wrote:

>> Which is gonna hit home to the world wide viewing public?
>
>This caused me to put my wierd thinking cap on. I’m gonna place my bet on
>a disaster. Yes friends, you heard it here first.
>
What do the War of 1812, the Spanish American War, WWI and Vietnam all have
in common? They were all preciptated in part by a naval incident. Personally
I start to fret when I hear about naval build-ups. Everyone is talking about
antrax or nerve gas. If the Iraqis used weapons like that (and they worked)
they would get nuked by Israel, the US or both – depending upon who suffered
the attack. But what if that loonie in Baghdad sent his whole damn AF with
every cruise missile he can get his mits on against a US task force. The
Stark has always bothered me. If the US was acting in a “provocative” manner
and Iraq struck with conventional weapons at our Navy, would any of our
allies support a land attack?

Personally I do not think the history of events that led to the end of
Desert Storm has been written yet. In retrospect, we either suffered a
massive failure of leadership at the top or we got taken to the cleaners by
some of our Allies. (Can’t you just see it? The French, Egyptians and Saudis
assuring the US that the Iraqi Army had pledged to overthrow Sadam and
arguing that a US drive to Baghdad could only humiliate the Arab world and
strengthen the Iranian demons. So, just one little cease fire and everything
will be fine. Big military victory, no losses to speak of, and Sadam taken
care of by the local inhabitants. And we fall for it.) There may be hell to
pay for that blunder, particularly in an area of the world where losing wars
seems to increase the strength of sadistic dictators.
Eric Bergerud, 531 Kains Ave, Albany CA 94706, 510-525-0930