On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 Stephen E Philion wrote:
> i think doug has a point here, what makes you think that the US needs
> Ariel Sharon to teach them any of this stuff? is it really any different
> than the US strategy in that quagmire known as Vietnam?
Doug and you both definately have a point when it comes to the hatefulness and in some ways absurdity of the rhetoric of Israeli influence. But strategically there is actually something to the intifada comparison -- although so far it proves the opposite of what Cde Mayer thinks.
The difference between Iraq and Vietnam, or for that matter almost all other guerrilla wars, is that Iraq at the moment is an urban guerrilla war where the others were rural. It is also one in which the inhabitants get to watch it in real time on uncontrolled TV. Both are historically very rare, and strategically they change everything. And it is indeed very much like the situation that faced Israel during the 2nd intifada. Except much bigger.
So far the US has not adopted the tactics of Jenin. (Which is not to say our tactics are gentler or better. And so far they're also not working.) It's more like the impasse of Beirut 1982, but without the Maronite auxiliaries. Militarily and politically this is a very tough nut.
Michael