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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: stockman_scott who wrote (118707)	11/6/2003 12:54:08 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (3) of 281500

Hi stockman scott; Interesting article. The big difference between Iraq and Vietnam is that then we had the troops available to make a small mess into a big mess. Now we don't. Nor does there appear to exist the political will to bring the draft back. It's utterly impossible for us to even maintain our current position in Iraq (over the long term) without increasing our troop size 4x. It is simply impossible to pacify a hostile population except by either sending in LOTS of (trigger happy) boys with guns, or pulling out completely and giving the locals time to forget their grievances. It's just not possible to bribe a hostile population with schools and what not. Hostile populations can only be pacified in those two ways, time and terror. History is long, but there is not a single example of a weak occupation force in an unbeaten (in terms of population killed by invaders) and hostile (in terms of active guerilla warfare) country that was able to convert the locals over to their side with gifts. None, not a single one. What the Bushies are hoping for is a miracle. They're even planning on reducing the occupying force. They will have to do this in the face of increasing attacks. I would guess that this would be a recipe for a disastrous troop extraction problem. -- Carl

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