Jan, with all due respect to your father (I also have a WWII vet in my
family unit), one point to consider is this (it was addressed in an article
about the possibilities for post-war reconstruction in Iraq):

Germany & Japan (not sure about S. Korea) were already industrialized
countries before WWII; when given aid, they could & did rebuild. I find it
difficult to imagine that the same could ever be said of Iraq. (Admittedly,
I don't have any statistics to cite about German or Japanese citizens
trashing the infrastructures of their own countries to compare with the
sabotaged facilities in Iraq.)

As for Vietnam, I don't think there were any winners there. I do, however,
admire George Aiken from Vermont, who suggested that the US simply "declare
victory and leave."

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC



"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
I'm sure someone can tear down this light-hearted history in a nut shell,
but.....

Interesting conversation that I could hear from the kitchen during Turkey
Day. My dad's teaches English to Agricultural Japanese students. They got
into a conversation about America always going to war. To which my dad
said, the countries we go to war with always come out ahead. We beat
Germany and now they are a rich country. We beat Japan, they became a rich
country, S.Korea, ditto and when we're done with Iraq they will become the
richest country in the middle east.

To which the Japanese student said, but what about Vietnam?

He said, We didn't win that war. ;o)~ jan
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