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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (111723)8/16/2003 2:56:49 PM
From: Sam  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
They did not know the limits of power. ... No matter how powerful you are there are certain limits, and they did not understand it well.
He got that right. Or partly right. Wlm Fulbright did write The Arrogance of Power, there were certainly people who understood it. The guys in power right now though are even more dangerous because they believe that they understand the limits of power. But Giap's second point applies to Iraq as well as Vietnam: "The second point I want to say is that they knew little about Vietnam and her people." Although I would never equate Hussein with Ho or the Iraqi resistance with what Vietnam did from the 20s through the 70s, the miscalculation about whether the Iraqis would "dance in the streets" on being "liberated" was a gross one, stemming both from ignorance of Iraq and an overestimation of what military might can accomplish. Or, perhaps better, military might could accomplish some of what they want if they were willing to use it without caring about any amount of "collateral damage" that they might do (the Romans did it that way, in general), but they are still decent enough and constrained enough to care about that, which severely limits their actions. For the moment they are, anyway.
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