>
> Am I imagining things, or is the Iraqi army kicking a surprising amount of
> ass? The Brits kicked out of Basra, irregulars shooting down Apaches... I'm
> amazed.
>
> This could wind up quite humiliating for the US and UK.
Don't forget the Zulus nearly liquidated the British with clubs and arrows, the Timorese screwed the Indonesians with 1920s-vintage rifles for 25 years, the FARC has held off a Colombian army that has full backing of the US for ten years, Hizbollah kicked Israel out of lebanon with light weapons...
It's one thing to get rid of an opportunistic puppet government like the Taliban, taking over a country with half-way developed national sentiment is something else entirely. The US really seems to have learned the wrong lesson, thinking Afghanistan was a pilot study, and forgetting that the NATO bombing probably helped prolong the Milosevic government...
Not to mention there are reports of busloads of volunteers going into Iraq from Syria. And Britain has also started mounting a defence along the Iranian border. They probably fear Iran will be used a staging post, or worse. The Turks want in on the action and the Kurds are helping us wipe out the other Kurds who in turn were mortal enemies of Saddam Hussein.
This is shaping up to be a very impressive mess.
Thiago
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