This is Jim G, I am forwarding a e-mail (from a first cousin of mine, George Giddens) I received (a group e-mail to the high school class). I cut out the first paragraph because it was about the snow storm. He lives in Fredericksburg, Va. He is a retired Air Force (full) Colonel. Was base commander of at least 4 bases, was at the pentageon the last 2 or 3 years of his military carrear after being picked by Gen Swartzhcof (spell) to be part of his team in and during the Persian Gulf War. Before that the was base commander of the Air Force base near Tampa Bay. During Viet-Nam he was a navigator in a two seater fighter bomber flying many combant missions. I thought you may be interested in his comment on the military sistutation today. One of our classmates had asked for his thoughts. Jim Giddens Paris, Tx _______________________________________________________________________________________ War with Iraq: I don't look forward to it, even though I think it the best decision. However, if it goes badly (for example, a Scud w/ chemical agents is launched at Israel and they retaliate w/ a glowing sunrise in Baghdad), we (the U.S) will suffer a big setback internationally. I think that the war could be relatively quick and clean (if one can use that description about blowing up things and people). There is a lot of rhetoric in the Arab world about unity and solidarity against the war, but in the end, there will be a lot of governments and people glad to see Saddam gone. A lot of people don't see why Iraq and point to North Korea as a greater threat. There is not much we can do about North Korea (ed. note: all Koreans avoid use of north and south--PDRK and ROK are their official names--because they all long for reunification of their country). Why? Because a million man army and tons of weaponry are too close to Seoul to do much about a NK incursion w/o lighting up the place pre emptively with nukes. That seems a very unlikely scenario, and it is hopeful that China can convince NK that we (the U.S.) are not about to do something foolish, but that the nuclear card may be our only option if they (NK) invade the south. But we can keep keep Iraq from becoming as formidable as NK. We have a good start on the conventional forces by the Gulf war earlier. What about the Al Queda link to Iraq? Intelligence probably has credible evidence, but it almost seems irrelavant. Two questions: (1) Does Saddam have acces to NBC weapons? Is it feasible to believe that he would sell/give them to terrorist organizations? Given that the answers to both are a reasonable "Yes", it seems prudent to remove him as a source. Certainly if there were a Democratic Republic of Al Queda, we would long since have hammered it with the might of our military, political, and economic hardware. We just can't pinpoint where to place the cross hairs on the operation a lot of the time. Well, I thought I could make this short. Forgive the soapbox. I trust that whatever course we take, the American people will rally behind the fighting forces and the decision makers enough to get the job done. If a diplomatic solution can be worked out, 98% of those deployed troops will be glad to return home without firing a shot or dropping a bomb. george