To: aladin who wrote (121733 ) 12/17/2003 11:38:24 AM From: Win Smith Read Replies (1) | Respond to I don't believe in analogistic warfare in general, but the local Godwin's Law demonstrations started long before the war, they seemed to be an integral part of the prewar propaganda campaign. To the best of my knowledge, the quagmire thing didn't start until things started looking like, you know, a quagmire.newyorker.com , if you're interested in something more than propaganda points:I sought out Erdmann in part because his dissertation adviser had been Ernest May, an authority on historical analogies. I was interested in the analogies that Erdmann was carrying around in his head for his new job of nation-building: The British in colonial Iraq? The Americans in postwar Germany? Lying on a cot in the trailer and fiddling with a Swiss Army knife, his feet propped on an Army duffelbag, his desk littered with water bottles, empty packets of Meals Ready to Eat, and unread books on the Middle East, Erdmann flashed a self-mocking grin. “I can’t think historically—there’ve been times when I don’t even know what I did forty-eight hours before,” he said wryly. “I try. It’s like a test for myself. Can I remember what I did the day before? I eventually can, but it takes effort. That’s not a good situation. You should be able to remember what you did in the last twenty-four hours.” But an accelerated timetable for Iraqi elections, along with the C.P.A.’s hurried attempts to recruit a new Iraqi Army, suggests that the hunt is on for an “exit strategy” as America enters its own election year. There is no reason to think that turning things over to divided Iraqi politicians and inexperienced troops will lead to a better outcome. If the Administration hastily adopts policies in order to claim success in Iraq, it will have returned to the wishful thinking that helped make the occupation a continuous crisis.
