Accepting mistakes.

[Lincoln]

paiktis obviously hasn't learned the dodge and duck technique. No one is ever wrong on this forum. But some of our previous comments are no longer operative (ala Richard Nixon).

[Seneca]

It just shows that being an optimist is a high-stakes game. If it turns out well, then because something good happened, and becuase you're right. If it goes badly, then it's double .

So pessimists are just hedging their bets, really.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Bah! Error is for mortals.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Seneca
Good honest response.

There are two types of cynic - those who want to be proved wrong, and those who hate it. I'm glad Paiktis is of the former sort.

To hear some of the anti-war camp, you'd think they were almost relieved at the looting and anarchy, after all those depressing pictures of cheering Iraqis....

only some mind

The problem with pictures of cheering people is that the same people who cheer you one day may shoot you the next.

The same people who cheered US forces in Mogadishu one day, cheered the bodies of US pilors and Rangers being dragged through the streets by ropes a few months later. The mob, er, um, crowd, is a fickle thing.

The US is still incurring casualties in Baghdad, there are humanitarian and security problems all over the country. The Iraqis never had a problem cheering for Saddam either - kind of like Pavlov's dog, you learn to cheer for the guys with the guns, so that they don't shoot you.

Reading anything of substance into short-term local reactions is just a good way to delude yourself. That Saddam is/was a murderous psychotic sadistic ******* despised by a majority of his people is pretty hard to doubt in the slightest. That getting rid of Saddam, in and of itself, is worthwhile, is a given, if you don't concern yourself with what happens over the next years/decades, or elsewhere in the Islamic world.

[GePap]

I hope things come out for the best, if only for purely selfish reasons (I don;t want to die and such and such). The thing is, nothing that has happened up to now has done anyting to remove that anxiety I have for this operation, since I always saw the possible dangers not form the actual war but form what is about to come.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Accepting mistakes.

Originally posted by paiktis22
MTG said this wasn't to be the case and I disagreed. And many people disagreed.

It was rather puzzling.

Also, all those missing troops should be a concern.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Re: Re: Accepting mistakes.

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
It was rather puzzling.

Not at all. There's very few who are actually motivated to fight and die for Saddam. Never have been very many, except for "external" motivation, such as death at the hands of the regime's goons, or your families death.

The Iraqis in GW 1 summarily executed more of their own troops than they killed of ours.

Also, all those missing troops should be a concern.

95% of them or more are deserters.

[Zylka]

Well Paik, you've indeed gained some respect from myself

[Az]

Paiktis.

We'll wait and see, but I so far, so good.

[Kropotkin]

Nothing to be sorry about. After all there where plenty of military "experts" on your side. Solid, objective Information on the situation before hand was after all scarce.

[Lincoln]

Another lesson for the experts. Whenever you see a talking head on TV it is probably best to listen to him with a grain of salt. The best information comes from the street. The problem is that the street was too scared to talk except for the expatriots. They predicted this outcome and apparently Bush listened to them.

[Az]

Our talking heads were rather accurate in all of their assessments, so I give them much more respect. I thought they were optimistic.