You're correct on that regard. Rommel was never a member of the NSDAP (the acronym 'Nazi' was rarely used within Germany). He did command Hitler's Army escort and protection battalion at the beginning of the war. Along with that he was already a minor celebrity, having written Infanterie greift an ("Infantry Attacks" - his account of combat service in World War I; probably the best book on modern small-unit infantry tactics).

"If I were"

-RC
--Grammar police!

Hey you right-wing grammar fascist - it's was, because if you dropped the if...

"I was at the bank"

is correct, and

"I were at the bank"

makes you sound like you're a redneck.

go play now little girl :o

Nope - subjunctive

Awww Love Spell is angwy. :(

You hate me because I'm AmeriKKKan, right?

And Rob, I think this debate will have to be continued later because I still think I'm right.

nah, you're not even close dude - the "remove the if" thing is a very elementary way of grammar deconstruction, and it doesn't apply here. Peep this link here , I'm presuming you're using the 'if' clause as being contrary to fact, therefore I am correct.


If I were a better man, I would have taken courses that matter instead of modern english grammar (EN513).

I've read the first two (well, almost finished with The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich), but haven't heard of the third book. I'll trot on over to Amazon.com right now!

My understanding on Rommel was that those in charge of the July 20, 1944 plot kept lists of who was going to hold which position in the "new Germany", and he was fairly prominent on the lists. It was never confirmed whether or not he even knew about the list. That's part of The Berlin Diaries that I mentioned; Missie was the secretary for Adam von Trott, and kept copious notes on the plot in a secret shorthand, which she translated just prior to her death. She mentions all sorts of names of those involved, including the Bismarks.

According to your crazy rules, you are in fact right. :(

I would love to see Bin Laden captured.

But with that being said, if he's captured in any place OTHER than Iraq, then we wasted time, lives, and valuable resources. Bin Laden was teh main objective (well the first anyway) in our war against Terrorism and to set out sights somewhere else before capturing him was completely short-sighted. But I pray we can bottle him up and crush his organization.

See that's the main area where many Bush supporters disagree with supporters of the guy that served in Vietnam. The war on terror is multi-faceted and it doesn't begin and end with any ONE place or any ONE person. The US was late getting into the game and we should have been on war-footing decades ago. No one likes change..and I think Bush is the first president that is putting the US on the offensive instead of the defensive. I actually think he'll be appreciated many years down the road...vs now where people want to write him off as an evil Texan who just wants to pick fights.

Bin Laden was NEVER the main objective in this war. It was widely understood that Al Qaeda was structured in a way that if it was decapitated, it would keep functioning.

The War on Terror is based on the notion that the only way to prevent another 9-11 (or worse) is to eliminate the root causes that allow Al Qaeda to exist. This means remaking the Middle East so that incompetent governments don't blame the US, through demagoguery, for everything. It means removing the influence of the radical madrassas. It also means that its time for the Middle East to cease being one of the few areas on Earth that is disengaged from the rest of humanity.

Terrorism picked up a thing or two from the communist playbook: compartmentalize yourself into small cells so that the loss of an operative by capture or death won't kill off the whole organization.

Whacking or capturing Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and or any of the identified top dogs of al-Qaeda won't kill off the organization. You need to be systematic and absolutely ruthless to wipe out all traces of al-Qaeda and any allied terror associations before you can rightfully say 'the war against terrorism is won'. And that's no guarantee that another hothead will find a cache of weapons and start the process all over again.

If the talent and leadership of these murderers are liquidated, they will fall apart after a while. This is assuming other tasks are undertaken as well to eliminate their support...sorta like dieting while exercising.

-Rudey

I can go with that.