Sounds like one hell of an officer.

Lets see if he, backed by Rumsfeld, can win the war in Iraq before State loses it.

Indeed, one hell of an officer. I don't think that State's problems are likely to persist much more. Depending on the Senate's composition post election, we might see those bipartisan reforms enacted that Newt Gingrich got in trouble for touting.

" Prohibited from unleashing his superior firepower, Abizaid used everything from laborious negotiations to painfully loud rock music to keep the Iraqi forces back."

Sounds like a good one. I like the creative types.

I don't evaluate islamic Arabs very high on the worldwide scale of cultural development.

But I don't think of four-star general of the United States Army John Abizaid as an Arab. Any more than I thought of general Dwight Eisenhower, general Carl Spaatz, admiral Chester Nimitz as Germans back in the World War II era. He is a fine American commander with an excellent military background.

I believe in the process of the good old American melting pot. Many, perhaps most, our ancestors, with their funny incomprehensible languages, unusual cultures, weird (but frequently tasty) food, started their American experience sitting like dummies with tags around their necks at a bunch of holding pens on Ellis Island. Inside three generations, their grandchildren have graduate degrees, run large corporations, invent useful gadgets, write great poetry and music, make fine films, discover new sciences, explore the heavens, serve in the armed forces of the United States, with the stars and stripes on the patches on their sleeves.

So I don't let my prejudices get in the way of good sense. I salute four star general John Abizaid, hero of the United States. High ranking officer in the finest army in the world.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI