Elite Iraqi Guard Heads Toward Marines

[Bradford DeLong]

>On 27/3/2003 1:52 AM, "lbo-talk-digest" 
><owner-lbo-talk-digest at lists.panix.com>
>wrote:
>
>>  We are going to get squeezed from the North and the South.... If the
>>  weather prevents air support, it is going to be horrendous.  Of course,
>>  if US air support comes in, it will be devastating for the Iraqi's.
>
>Don't be so worried about 'your' army. 'You' are not getting squeezed,
>certainly not from the south, which is mostly empty desert where the highly
>mobile US forces have a decisive maneuvering advantage. There is a harassment
>campaign, which means that places like Umm Qasar are not really safe for
>civilians, the US has a very long supply line, which is liable to 
>incur losses,
>but they have near hegemony in the desert and complete hegemony in 
>the air. So,
>I am afraid that they won't be liquidated. Far from it.
>
>As for the on going debate about the desirability of US military losses, it
>seems to me obvious that if there are serious US casualties, the USG is not as
>likely to pursue this sort of thing again in even more heavily armed 
>and easily
>defensible countries like Iran or Syria. It's not pretty but Iraqis have a
>right to kill US troops, who are the aggressors in this. The more effective
>they are at that, the more the cost to be an aggressor. (Assuming 
>that Bush and
>Co. are rational, which might be a stretch.) If you are not happy about that -
>I am not - let's work towards putting the bastards who sent these people over
>there in jail. Save your compassion for the gallows.
>
>Thiago

There was *some* grandeur in being a stooge for Lenin. There is none 
in being a stooge for Saddam Hussein.

Brad DeLong