<I fear the window has closed>
It's not so much that we can no longer win, it's that we have repeatedly demonstrated our inability to wage an effective HeartsAndMinds campaign.
In the early Vietnam War, there was a pilot program, sending Special Forces to live longterm in Vietnamese villages, eating the food they eat, living the way they lived, building up village self-defense militias. The program worked, eliminating the Vietcong from the area. But it was abandoned, because it was too strange for widespread application by our military.
We learned nothing from the mistakes, the failing methods, of that war, so we are doomed to repeat them. We just don't seem able, as a nation, to use winning methods in these wars.
Announcing that there will be a constitution, sometime next year, and an election after that (2005?, 2006?) is a step in the right direction. But will the Iraqi people wait patiently, for years, for us to fulfill our promises about freedom and elections? And, if our soldiers decide we aren't going to win the election, will they (again) postpone them? |
