Monday, September 26, 2005
Why We Are FUCKED In Iraq...
...James Wolcott is a REALLY smart guy. And he can REALLY write, which puts him waaaaay ahead of me on both counts.
I however can remember things...a little...and I remember Viet nam. I was draft age and I "lost" the all expense paid trip to Southeast Asia. I did do my part at home and activated and protested and voted and I sure do think about how it is soooo similar now as to how it was back then. I'll probably do more on that later.
Wolcott though...he has a great long column today about a lot of stuff. It's great. Go read it. And one link stuck out for me. It's a long essay about Moshe Dayan (of all people) and what he learned when he went to Viet Nam.
Mr. Wolcott says, "In November of last year, the iconoclastic military historian Martin van Creveld, peering through a glass darkly, foresaw this spectre of defeat in an essay called Why Iraq Will End as Vietnam Did." Read the whole thing.
And isn't it just true today:
"In other words, he who fights against the weak – and the rag-tag Iraqi militias are very weak indeed – and loses, loses. He who fights against the weak and wins also loses. To kill an opponent who is much weaker than yourself is unnecessary and therefore cruel; to let that opponent kill you is unnecessary and therefore foolish. As Vietnam and countless other cases prove, no armed force however rich, however powerful, however, advanced, and however well motivated is immune to this dilemma. The end result is always disintegration and defeat; if U.S troops in Iraq have not yet started fragging their officers, the suicide rate among them is already exceptionally high. That is why the present adventure will almost certainly end as the previous one did. Namely, with the last US troops fleeing the country while hanging on to their helicopters’ skids."
...how fucked ARE we? REAL fucked.
I however can remember things...a little...and I remember Viet nam. I was draft age and I "lost" the all expense paid trip to Southeast Asia. I did do my part at home and activated and protested and voted and I sure do think about how it is soooo similar now as to how it was back then. I'll probably do more on that later.
Wolcott though...he has a great long column today about a lot of stuff. It's great. Go read it. And one link stuck out for me. It's a long essay about Moshe Dayan (of all people) and what he learned when he went to Viet Nam.
Mr. Wolcott says, "In November of last year, the iconoclastic military historian Martin van Creveld, peering through a glass darkly, foresaw this spectre of defeat in an essay called Why Iraq Will End as Vietnam Did." Read the whole thing.
And isn't it just true today:
"In other words, he who fights against the weak – and the rag-tag Iraqi militias are very weak indeed – and loses, loses. He who fights against the weak and wins also loses. To kill an opponent who is much weaker than yourself is unnecessary and therefore cruel; to let that opponent kill you is unnecessary and therefore foolish. As Vietnam and countless other cases prove, no armed force however rich, however powerful, however, advanced, and however well motivated is immune to this dilemma. The end result is always disintegration and defeat; if U.S troops in Iraq have not yet started fragging their officers, the suicide rate among them is already exceptionally high. That is why the present adventure will almost certainly end as the previous one did. Namely, with the last US troops fleeing the country while hanging on to their helicopters’ skids."
...how fucked ARE we? REAL fucked.
