Not sure what you're saying. The titles from your link for those years,

Second military era (1977-1988)

Third democratic era (1988-1999)

Third military era (1999 - 2007)

I believe today is the 300th anniversary of the burial of Elvis. I'd like to offer this in memory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57KDDKbfhmI

I would tend to agree with your assessment of the risks in Pakistan. I do not think we have our "eye on the ball" in this particular case.

You ask: "What should we do with Pakistan?"

I'm not sure exactly, but I think we should STOP being retarded cowboys and thinking and acting as if we are the big "HERO" of the world.

The biggest problem is not around us, it is within us. "We need to be the change we wish to see in the world". How? We begin by getting our "home" in order. We do this by focusing on some things, and letting go of others. We do this by being open and honest with ourselves and each other. We do this by facing up to reality instead of pointing, blaming, borrowing, stealing, or cheating. We do this by hard, virtuous work instead of living on credit or pilfering from other countries.

This is simplistic and idealistic, I know. But most of our problems stem from simple lacks of virtue and a tendency to "insist on our own way".

You suggested "...strategically necessary imperative!!!"...

ooooooooohhhh.. OUCH!!! NO, NO, NO!!! My GOD! Such thinking is precisely how we got our foolish butt into Iraq and Afgahnastan!! We simply "Had to". (NOT!!)

"Hate does not drive out hate, only love can do that". We need to act with more love and less hate in everything we do. WE need to change.

I agree with your "fix the inside" assessment and accept that Iraq was a steaming pile of BS from Bush and co. Afghanistan had to be engaged as they were aligned with our attackers and refused to serve up Bin Laden and co.

We blew Afghanistan tactically and blew Iraq strategically.

Pakistan has nukes...no doubt of that. 80% of the country is pro-Bin Laden We cannot fix the PR issue in time to prevent the unthinkable

Hence, due to our mismianagment of the past 8 years we will have to have "once more to the breach dear friends" or gode India into handling it.

Then we can work on group hugs and PR repair ttoward the goal of "World Peas/Peace" :)

Usually history favors the victorious not the incompetent

wcbiv wrote:"That said, I think our intervention in Pakistan may be a sad, dangerous but a strategically necessary imperative"...

My question is if Americans are enough prepared for the intervention in these countries (Iraq,Afganistan,etc.)?

If we refer to the history we will see that all these nationalities have a long history and culture from years ago and they still respect those values What is the level of Americans’ knowledge about these countries’ culture? :D

Do you think Americans have learned from others countries experience intervention on those places years ago? What is your opinion on that?

BOOM,...happy now!

Hi Happy----Merry Christmas'

I agree with you completely. If we brought all our troops, ships and planes home to the United States nothing could penetrate our defences.

We inspect less than 2% of the goods imported to various ports in the USA.

A nuke in a crate of panty hose and good bye Long Beach

I hate interventionism and I deplore the fisaco that was/is Iraq...but that is not justification for Ostrich time, or wishful thinking.