I do not wish the life of a communist onto my worst enemy Cambodia especially became a Hell on Earth as it tried to enforce a communist orthodoxy . You predicted a US loss in Vietnam five years early? Did you predict the millions that would die afterwards as a result? Can you predict the scale of destruction that will follow our failure in Iraq?
IMHO Plane, I don't think Tee really cares. As long as the U.S gets a big bad political black eye, that the american image is as tarnashed & dragged thru the mud as much as possible, as well as whatever American military casualties can be acrued, I think that's all that really matters. We are the "pure evil" on the globe, and our military is simply a big mass of murderers and rapists, so anything is really justified in taking out such pure evil
On the other hand, Tee is not hobbled by partriotism, which at times can interfer with clear thinking and meamingful perspective, nor is he as directly subject to the scales and chords of political correctness that bombard us daily from TV and media in general, and the spin machines from advertising, and political, federa, and private practice intelligence, and bigger, fewer dragons of media influence.
He suffers not from species locale, as say plane from dixie america, lanya from the wounded rustbelt, or folks like Knute, Missus, and yourself, all going through the experience of different lifestyes, toughing it out in burning california.
All have ties and influences of local culture which add more facets on an already crowded prism.
I for one appreciate Mikes views, which are sometimes more objective because they are without the distractions and mind drenchings to which we are less free of than he. He does not have to daily imbibe a bowl of emotional soup, or be "one of them."
You will find like objectivity with the foreign press, which in general has far less farflung and enslaving webs of special interest, fewer plaguing hauntings of debts, guilts and shamings which shoulder us to Big Brother obesiance, and which therefore permit a straighter assessment, free from spin and fascination (in the witch sense).
In matter of fact, I find often that the foreign press has more credilibity, especially when you consider what is left out, what is purposely not reported. The missing, the obstructed story is a tenet of political correctness, and a reason for its being.
You might listen to Mike with a fresh ear. Your present foxhole, after all, has made you hoarse from scoffing and dizzy from hurling derisions.