Bag Man
Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the
world's policeman.
It should also have taught us the dangers
of trying to be the world's midwife
to democracy when the birth is scheduled
to take place under conditions of guerrilla war.
--Jeane Kirkpatrick, 1979
We have forgotten that Vietnam, and Iraq
resent being invaded
and know the ground better than we do
--Wendell Barry
______________
There is some cognitive dissonance between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's assertion that Iraq has defeated terrorism and the soldier who must wear a face mask while on patrol (Iraqi PM: We Have Defeated Terrorism.) It is Vietnam, redux: Let's just say we won and leave (Now That We've 'Won," Let's Come Home.)
In this case, Mr. al-Maliki is giving a less-than-subtle push to his erstwhile buddies -- "Thanks for coming; bye." If terrorism has been defeated, why does this soldier wear an anonymizing hood?
There is very little truth in the words of either George W. Bush or PM al-Maliki.
Labels: al-maliki defeats terrorism, iraq as vietnam, PWOT, wot
posted by rangeragainstwar at 4:26 PM
3 Comments:
yes.... but you have to admit, the best that will come out of this is that we get some lame conditions that allow us to claim victory, then get the hell out of Dodge....
Maliki for better or worse is giving us that opportunity.... the irony is that it doesn't fit Dubya's time line.
he was just kicking the can down the road so that the next administration will have to deal with the withdrawal issue, one way or another.
if the Democrats win and accomplish a withdrawal, they get accused of losing the war.....
but what Dubya REALLY wanted, was some kind of long-term Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq to codify long-term "security" responsibilities and basing rights, hanging that around the Democratic President and Congress's neck like an albatross....
ghost dansing-yep. jim
the hammer will fall, and fall hard. our occupation is rapidly approaching the point where we will be forced to simply loot the oil we want or face total collapse.
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