----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Pensinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 10:32 PM Subject: Re: Brin: Purple America
> On Sat, 6 Nov 2004 17:49:10 -0800 (PST), Gautam Mukunda > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Since we've heard a lot about "Red States" and "Blue > > States" I thought posting a link to this graphic would > > be interesting. I'd been planning on making it > > myself, but luckily someone much better at computers > > beat me to it. Robert Vanderbei created a map of the > > US shaded down to the county level and shades each > > county according to the vote shares. Note just how > > purple the country looks. > > > > http://www.kieranhealy.org/files/misc/purple_america_2004_small.gif > > Interesting. So do you think we have the numbers we need to win the > peace? The war is becoming very unpopular in the UK, what if they pull > out? I guess what I'm asking is how do we win this thing? Does anyone > really believe that they'll hold elections in January and support for the > insurgency will dry up and they'll go away? It sure as hell didn't work > in Viet Nam. You know that I also think there is more downside than upside in Iraq, and I do appreciate the 10k or so troops that the British have in Iraq, but from a military standpoint, we didn't get much help in Gulf War I or II....so that going it with just the British will have practically no effect. If they leave, we'll have to up troop levels 10% or so. But, with 1.4 million active duty personnel, that 10k is only a problem because of the normal rules of rotation and the fact that we still are a bit oversized in places like Germany. So, replacing Britain's 10k wouldn't be trivial, but it shouldn't have a major impact on what we do. Realistically, Western Europe needed a leadership in commitment by the US match up well against Slovenia. Gautam or Damon can correct me, but I think that Europe has effectively decided (with the exception of GB and Russia) to effectively not be military powers. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
