[mburbank]

I think Chimp read what IO wrote more carefully than you did. At least he made the joke.

Yes, I absolutely think Invading Iraq is what Al Quaida counted on us doing. Yes, I think Al Quaida and Pakistn are working together. They were right up until 9/11, why wouldn't they still be?

Yes, I think Mushariff barely controls Pakistan. There have been two assasination attempts.

Yes, I think the nuclear black market was state sponsored by pakistan. I don't for an instant believe that a single acientist on his own arranged trade between Pakistan, Iraq, North Korea and Syria.

Yes, I think we got something from Pakistan in return for not making a fuss when Kahn was pardoned. I don't believe our ;spring offensive' announcement coinciding with the pardon is coincidence.

I'm not talking about an american city getting nuked. I am talking about a nuke waiting for us wherever we mass troops in Pakistan or Afghanistan prior to the offensive.

Al Quaida is as mixed with Paksitan's government as it was with Afghanistan's. Did Americas millitary might or fear of what might happen in Afghanistan stop Al Quaida from 9/11, or the Taliban from refusing to give up Bin Laden directly afterwards? Al Quaida doesn't have the fears we expect people to have, they aren't worried about a state because they don't have one.

The terrain of the border country between Afghanistan and Iraq is an ambushers wet dream, and it favors the smaller force in every way. The history of that region is a long list of the indigenous people giving empires a bloody nose and living to tell the tale.