Steve,

I was not supporting him in this post or saying that he was the first one to do anything. I simply said that his manual outlines modern insurgencies and is the exact methods that are practiced today. Now, I will be the first to admit that I have not read all of Sun Tzu's book "The Art of War" (maybe I will now), but what I have read, this is a manual for battle that has to do with leading an army, which is totally not what they are about. Sun Tzu says that one needs to defend positions until they can advance, while territory is not the aim of the modern foes. They want to hit us and run. Their goal is to be a constant pain in our side for as long as we are willing to be there. We should know, we used this same method against the Sandinista in Nicaragua when we paid the Contras to attack the churches, electrical plants, hospitals, etc. We trained Bin Laden and Co. to do the same thing in Afghanistan against the Soviets.

As far as the story of Che, I really must say you are off the mark on that one, but that is okay, because that was not the intention of this comment. With that said, if you read his book, you can map out the entire Iraqi resistance and see where, how, and with whom they will hit us. That is why when we rolled in, they dropped their uniforms and walked away. That was not the way the Iraqi people would successfully defend themselves from our aggression and occupation. They made a very purposeful decision to use opportunity instead of being forced on a battle field. This is what that book says they should do. And you can tell that it will last as long as we are there in the way we are. I would like to point one thing out (just for the record) while we can always defeat governments, we have yet to take over one single group of poor people since that book was published. We have lost every one of those battles (and yes, Rome proved that you can win those battles).

You want to know how we can beat the people over there that want to attack us again, and for that matter, this entire so called War against Terror. Rent the movie Munich (2005) or look at Mossad. So long as we fight like Al Quaeda is another nation, we don't have a chance to win this thing. We (and I think I already posted this) need to transform our entire military, put 100,000 teams of six on the ground world wide with the best training and technology we have, and help them track down every member of Al Qaeda and simply kill them. No major battles, just simple hits.

One thing we all need to consider as we discuss this, and try to influnce each other. We are talking about this here in the comforts of our homes, and emailing political representatives, and getting ready to vote on an election. Our friends (I can say that for real) are over there and risking their lives. Our #1 concern (regardless of your politics) should be not to waste lives, and to do what ever is the most effective. Where I think Iraq is foolish to begin with, it is not because there aren't people out there who want to cut my head off, they are there, it is simply that they are not in Iraq. Of course, some of them in Iraq hate us too (between Clinton and Bush we have caused the deaths of well over 1 million people there, many of them being innocent children), but the leaders of the organization who really are trying to kill us are not on the battle fields, and we will not find them like this. I think we all should agree that these people should be the #1 target. You kill all of them, the war is over, plain and simple. This is not a people's movement like the Iraqi resistance to US occupation has become, Al Quaeda is a fundamentalist organization with a heirarchy and clear leadership. We need to cut the head off that snake.