Originally posted by Sandman333:
Yes, let's take first hand experience, someone who has seen and lived within the scale of the insurgency, worked alongside the populace, and had daily intel briefings for over a year, and toss all that aside, right?


My point was NOT to be argumentative or to dispute your experience - you raised the issue and challenged me to do the math - I did that in good faith.

Reread my "did the math" post and you'll see that I left myself open to the possibility that you are right and more than 4 million Iraqi's are armed; and that would make Iraq a very dangerous place.

I did, however, find that number too high to simply accept off hand - and so, apparently, does your government.

And so I checked to see what the U.S. government was saying about the size and scope of the insurgency, and gave you back their numbers - I didn't make them up and I have no agenda except to try and slice through the hype and the exaggeration and get to the truth.

Your government's account differ with yours - and so I take offense that you call me ignorant - I merely pointed out that your account conflicts witht the CIA; and I tried to do that respectfully. It's not like I was citing Michael Moore as my source.

So, it's you versus the U.S. government. If you have a problem, it's with them.

And if you have a problem with me challenging your numbers and asking for substantiation - maybe you should have that backup before making claims that at face value are pretty wild.