JDN, how would a half million or even a million "foreign" soldiers in Iraq be able to stop attacks from guerrilla forces who are indistinguishable from the general population?
I think the key is, and always has been, whether there are enough non-guerrilla Iraqis who will, at a minimum, tacitly look the other way and allow the guerrillas to operate. If the answer is "yes," then you have the fertile soil that nourishes and cultivates guerrilla warfare. As soon as it became apparent that we weren't "welcomed with open arms," we needed to go back to the drawing board and find a plan B.
History is replete with strong nations that promised to "crush" guerrilla resistance but the actual results show that if the ideas that drive them don't die, the resistance doesn't die. The things that actually die are the soldiers of the occupiers and the guerrillas. Eventually the cuts get too painful to bear and plan B comes into being.
The scariest thing I've seen in a long time is Bush on TV with his "John Wayne" look saying that we will not bow to terror and that we will prevail in our attempts to nation build in Iraq. Pride and arrogance combined with ignorance do NOT defeat guerrillas, not even with all of the weapons and assets at the disposal of the most powerful military nation in the world.
Another concern is that we have, in large part, become such a great military power because of our enormous wealth. Those weapons programs and that military establishment aren't cheap. When we get finished in Iraq we may not even be the most powerful economy in the world.
So many problems, so little time. |
