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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jjkirk who wrote (9164)	11/6/2001 7:37:38 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi jjkirk; Re: "<iFrom your history lesson, the Brits know that the illogical ..." I never said or implied that the Zulus were "illogical", so where do you come up with this? The fact was that until their final battle the Zulus were undefeated in the open, so it was perfectly logical for them to conclude that they were braver than the British. The Iraqis didn't believe that they could be defeated on the ground; if they'd known the truth of their own weakness they'd not have fought. Until they were crushed on the ground it was perfectly logical for them to believe that the United States couldn't successfully fight a land war in Asia. The Taliban are in a similar situation, but their own fallacy is believing that the mountains of Afghanistan (or the supposed warlike nature of the Afghanis) gives them an unbeatable advantage over the US. The US vs Afghanistan war, like the US vs Iraq or British vs Zulu (or US vs Japan for that matter) are asymmetric conflicts and those are the most difficult situations to analyze. The weaker power knows that it is weaker. What they hope is that the stronger power won't have the will to prosecute the war to its conclusion. The simple fact that there are plenty of people in the West saying that we don't have the will to win is enough to indicate that the Taliban are not illogical. Re: "... fanatical ..." I never said or implied that the Zulus (or the Taliban) were fanatical, so where did you come up with this? The fact is that every race on this planet is made up of the genetic stock of heroes. If you want to see fanaticism, just hang out at the local Special Forces watering hole. Or look through this list of US Medal of Honor winners: army.mil -- Carl