August 06, 2003
Discontent and Trouble

V.D. Hanson hits it again with this article:

The steady killing of American soldiers in ones and twos is tragic and dispiriting — but it is not yet grounds for thinking that such attrition is tantamount to stalemate. We are in a situation not unlike what we would have faced in Western Europe had the Nazis suddenly collapsed in summer 1944 (some high-ranking Wehrmacht officers in fact advocated just such a capitulation), leaving tens of thousands of diehards in pockets throughout Germany, convinced that they had not been beaten and could fight on in terrorist cells. Rather than despair at a novel situation, we need to look at the larger issues that are always critical in guerrilla warfare — and which we know a great deal about, from both long experience in the 19th century and liberationist movements since 1960.
...
Are there two de facto countries in Iraq — secure cities versus guerrilla-occupied jungles or mountains? While resistance is stiffer in the Sunni triangle (given the original nature of our rapid-victory drives), Iraq is not Vietnam. Its geography is not conducive for stealthy operations: The desert simply offers no stealth for counterinsurgency in the age of drones and satellite reconnaissance.
...
Yes, there is growing anger in America. But unlike in Vietnam, it is not directed at the Pentagon or at the military or at our supporters (such as the Kurds), but rather at the Iraqi street itself. The danger is not — as was true in the 1960s, when our own naïve youth reconceived hard-core Stalinist Vietnamese as romantic utopians — that we will be mesmerized by the Fedeyeen. No, the worry is instead that the ingratitude shown by a few vocal Iraqi opportunists could convince too many of us that the entire country is simply not worth an iota of our blood and treasure.

Now go read the rest of it.

Posted by scott at August 06, 2003 10:35 AM

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Comments

Our interstate highway system is falling apart,our senior citizens have to decide if they want to buy food or medicine, our schools are old and outdated,we don't have funds for books, computers,fine art classes. Yet we can spend $4-5 BILLION a month in Iraq, where the people seem to hate us as much as the Hussein regime. You are right I am tired of the whole thing. I don't see that the Bushites have any plan or any idea of how to get us out of the place. It seems they are like a dog who caught the car it was chasing. What the hell do we do now.

Posted by: Pat on August 6, 2003 03:46 PM

Well we set up a governing council of ~26 people, a start to getting them their own "better" government. Eventually we'll let them take over.
When you invade a country and rip it apart like that, you can't just pull out without giving them a leg to stand on. I'm not saying it was completely right to invade, but now that we have, we need to be there for a few years at least as their government gets stronger.

Posted by: Sherri on August 7, 2003 09:10 AM
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