--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > led a spectacularly successful War in Afghanistan > > "spectacularly successful"? It's not over yet by a longshot, much > too > soon to call it a success. At best, it is a work in progress.
Again, it depends on your criteria. As noted previously, I am using the criteria as I feel that they have generally been applied by historians to the rating of Presidents. If Bush wins a second term and succeeds in building a liberal democracy in Afghanistan, he may likely go down as one of the Top 5 Presidents of all time. Nevertheless, following September 11th he was Commander-in-Chief during a war of stunning brevity that overthrew The Taliban and denied Al Qaeda their primary base of operations, all with a minimum of allied casualties. Given the doom-and-gloom warnings at the time of how Afghanistan had brought down both the British and Soviet empires, the war qua war was spectacularly successful. The elements that are "still in progress," are elements that in the judgement of history would merely be icing on the cake beyond the goals which the war has already accomplished. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
