In a message dated 02/10/2005 10:29:05 AM Eastern Standard Time, howard at brazee.net writes: GW couldn't really use this today. Masses of men are now just targets. . This may not necessarily be accurate. We were able to defeat and take over Iraq in a short period of time. The problem is that it would take much more troops to actually hold as much land as Iraq encompasses. If you were to study the Old West, you would find a very similar situation to what we face in Iraq. Indifferent, collaborative, or fearful populace, and a small group of violent individuals able to escape confinement because of the sheer size of the country and the absence of widespread police or law enforcement. As the Western population grew and technological advances such as the telephone, telegraph and railroad came into use. Russia ran into a very similiar problem in Afganistan, (which we are facing now also). John D. Barbato, OD