Ron, LH et al. It may suprise you but I almost always split my vote. This year while I will vote for Bush with a clean and easy conscience, I will be voting for a Democrat for WV Governor, have voted for both Dem Senators, and a Repub Representative.

Many months ago, in another thread, I gave my reasons for backing Bush in Iraq, and long before that, gave my thoughts (even under Clinton and long before Kerry) about the lack of necessity for a military background to be a good Commander in Chief.

I was stationed in Israel during the last Gulf War and have long believed that we should have finished the job then; though not necessarily on a march to Bagdahd, but assisting the Kurds, and Marsh Arabs when they revolted. Bush is doing exactly what is the most prudent thing to do in my view, and so far he has been right. Not in the view of the sixteen words about WMD (which I wrote my Masters thesis about in 1998, and the inherent problems of the China Wall between the CIA, FBI and yes, the IRS for information sharing).

Knock on wood, we have suceeded beyound my wildest dreams, with no new terrorist attacks in the US in the past three years. Yes, they go after our Marines in Iraq, but the men know to expect it, and are capable of a ready armed defense or offense. Who would of thought that we could prevent attacks for three years, when some of the talking heads were giving us three months, for another attack.

I will close with a simple thesis. If I gave a small town three million dollars to build a defense system to prevent me from commiting terrorist acts within the town, they could not do it. Back when I was a Police officer, I used to train my Dept's SWAT team, and would regularly defeat them during practice sessions, with such things as a simple mouse trap bent to swing in on the primer of a shotgun shell (with pellets removed)in a capped 1/2 inch pipe, and a knowledge of their mostly likely tactics. That was practice, but a real device could take them off at the ankles. You could not do it.

But if you take that same three million dollars and put out part of it as a reward, build an intelligence organization, and then send hard men to hunt me down, I'm too busy to try and double back to try anything. Look at Osama, who was regularly giving interviews to Arab TV stations. We haven't heard from him in months, if in fact he is still alive. You take your best game (even if it is not perfect) to the other guy.

And while I'm now out of the action, one of my bunk mates in OCS is now the Assistant Commandant of the Corps, and when he tells me the troops have high morale, know why they are there, and can do the job, I believe him. The previous Commandant, Chuck Krulack, whose Dad was the famous General "Brute" Krulack of Inchon fame, (and was the Company Cmdr of our "brother" Company in the Nam, wrote two studies, which are famous in the Corps. One was called the "Stategic Corporal"; the idea to train the lower ranked Marines to act immediately in independant small operations. The other was called the "Three Block War"; the idea that future actions may often involve, quick vicious fights in built-up areas, with smaller forces. This was at least ten years ago, (before "Black Hawk Down") and sums up the current situation fairly well. I'm sure you could Google this and read for yourself. You might be suprised by the scholarship.

It seems rather common in the MudCat for certain people to assume that those who advocate for Bush are mindless, ignorant, followers of Republican politics. I have long stated my oposition to several Republican ideals, believeing in a woman's right to choose and the assualt weapons ban. And I'm willing to match my academic credentials with any member of the MudCat.

I'm voting for Bush, not against Kerry...