>"you must know the posts I make are for my own shallow, poor taste, amusement."

It's not for your "amusement", or you would keep them in a file to amuse just yourself.
You do them to irritate the bejeesus out of us sane liberals and to dangle real or imagined state secrets at us as if we were little children and that YOU are involved somehow within Bush's DOD "inner circle".

>"No, the UN is a farce - it has not made the world more secure - the US has."

That is pure bullshit (and pardon my strong language Zoners), but I can't think of a better word that would suit my outrage at this erroneous statement! We have destabilized many governmnets and continue to do so. We have armed old allies and enemies alike in the hopes they will support our foreign policy games. When we double cross them or change our minds, or go looking for cheap love and affection elsewhere, we make more enemies that we could ever have imagined.
Why, look at 9/11! WHY did this happen to us??
Has any OTHER country suffered such great retribution?
Such hatred?
Why SDAI, (in your all-knowing mode), has this happened to US?

>"Bush is not going to wait for much more than a fortnight before letting this charade continue."

The full moon next weekend has some of the worst aspects I've seen in ages. Mercury and
Jupiter will be in EXACT opposition to Neptune (happens every 12 years), which can bring about unintended, ill-conceived actions. Mars is also in EXACT opposition to Pluto (happens every two years) that day as well (16th), so a use of force could appear suddenly. If Bush decides to strike, I think he'll use the full moon.
(Maybe I should do a rain dance and cloud over the whole middle east??)
The Sun is also in direct opposition to Uranus....unforseen events, disruption.

I do not want to be a prognosticator of negative events, but my gut feeling as an astrologer that ANY irrational act from Bush will surface at this time. I hope his vindictive taste for blood and revenge is checked by his cool staff of advisors and international pressure to seek other alternatives.
Bush is NOT a law unto himself!
He should be listening to domestic and international opinions about how to handle the situation with Iraq.

One of your German friends, Chancellor Schroeder has a few good ideas. Of course, he's working with that OTHER axis of evil....France.
This is what he proposes.......sound more SANE to me:

U.N. PROTECTORATE

Der Spiegel said the initiative, which it said had been dubbed "Project Mirage," included the following proposals:

-- the some 150,000 U.S. troops already deployed to the Gulf should stay in place to force Baghdad to cooperate and be ready to invade if it breaches the new proposed U.N. resolution

-- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be forced to admit thousands of armed U.N. troops to oversee intensified weapons inspections in the whole country as well as full disarmament,creating a de facto "U.N. protectorate"

-- the number of weapons inspectors should be tripled from the current 100 operating in Iraq

-- the no-fly zone over northern and southern Iraq should be extended to cover the whole country and French, German and U.S. reconnaissance planes should be allowed to patrol the skies

-- a permanent U.N. coordinator of arms inspections in Iraq could be appointed

-- sanctions should be made more focused to clamp down on oil smuggling by Iraq's neighbors and tighten export controls

-- a special U.N. court should be established to oversee infringements of the new resolution and human rights abuses