One of the problems with suggesting that we must confront the other party aggressively when they attempt to have us believe their lies is that it could become a full time job.  They have grown so unfamiliar with telling the truth, that almost every paragraph needs a response from somewhere.  What a shame!
I try to cease communication with anyone who has lied to or about me three times in one day, but I possibly make an exception here.

Lie # 1:  I do not agree, as is credited to me, that “the number of troops is truly less important than what we allow those same troops to do.”  This is a “Rush line” from about three months back, and someone remembered it well.  From the time of the Roman occupation of Judea and Palestine two thousand years ago, through Algeria, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and now Iraq, an occupying army’s size must be at least two percent of the occupied country’s population to have any hope of defeating insurgents in any extended occupation.  The number required for Iraq would be 440,000 troops, as suggested, and ignored, by the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. One must not be in some type of “DOD loop” to know this.  It is pretty well common knowledge for most Army Infantry Officers, active or reserve, and is well understood by virtually every second year cadet at West Point.  This is not rocket science. Sort of like the earth’s atmosphere is about 78% Nitrogen, nothing short of true divine intervention will change it, regardless of how many times the commander-in-chief has been born again, or how many pages of scripture he reads daily.

Lie # 2:  “Bert Smith is a swell guy.”  You don’t know that to be true, any more than George W. Bush knew there were WMD in Iraq in 2003.  I may have shaken hands with you, maybe, at a debate or such, but I can count on one hand the number of people I have discussed military strategy with over the last 33 months, and you were not one of them.  So please don’t pretend that you have some knowledge of my thoughts on military issues. “Sorry Bert, but the truth is what it is.”  Do people actually pay you money to write stuff like that?

Lie # 3:  I do not agree that “we could wage war by pulling our reservists out….”  In the new modern army, any extended combat operation now requires extensive Guard and Reserve participation. It’s not an option.  Do you really want to “wipe out” Sadr, the low income suburb (slum) of Baghdad which is the home 2,000,000 people (three times the population of Oklahoma City). It’s filled with a large population of women and children, 99.9% of which have never even spoken badly about our country or our soldiers  Right On!

An idea:  If you really want to be part of a solution, rather than part of the problem, as the saying goes, join the army.  They will pay big bucks for prior service folks, even navy.  Since your president has decided that it will be the next president who gets us out, my kid is likely to need some help before this is over. We would all appreciate some help, even good Republican help, to get this deal finished.