tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post2156961196726072908..comments2024-03-29T02:03:49.151-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: How are things in Iraq?David Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-62897341782382719262007-08-07T07:37:00.000-04:002007-08-07T07:37:00.000-04:00Just a minor note about your word choice -- severa...Just a minor note about your word choice -- several of the "men" that were killed from April to July were in fact women. Perhaps you were using "men" as a synonym for "troops", but the number of women killed in action in Iraq is unprecedented and worth noting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-15575958057583995552007-08-06T16:21:00.000-04:002007-08-06T16:21:00.000-04:00Just to follow-up on what the first "anonymous" co...Just to follow-up on what the first "anonymous" commenter said about the historical similarities between Iraq and Vietnam, large sections of Robert McNamara's book "In Retrospect," written in the mid-1990s about the lessons of the Vietnam War, could be quoted verbatim to comment on the Iraq occupation. The similarities are uncanny, and the fact that no one in charge bothered to consider the lessons of Vietnam before we invaded is a tragedy that will reverberate for a long time to come.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-90528777093695118202007-08-06T07:19:00.000-04:002007-08-06T07:19:00.000-04:00Reading Ronald Spector's The Year after Tet, it is...Reading Ronald Spector's The Year after Tet, it is clear the US had stalemated by 1969.<BR/><BR/>The Tet Offensive was devastating to the local NLF/VC infrastructure and operations, allowing Pacification to progress.<BR/><BR/>But the US was still trapped into Search & Destroy operations, and massive 'encounter' battles (the Marines took their heaviest casualties of the war in this period, in a battle in some villages north of Da Nang). The enemy had learned to evade the massive US firepower, or to 'hug him closely' and negate its advantage.<BR/><BR/>Another factor was the one identified by Jonathan Shell, Neil Sheehan, etc. By systematic bombing of civilian areas (in which the enemy was operating/transiting) and 'free fire zones' the US had depopulated large chunks of the countryside, forcing the population to become internal refugees in government controlled camps.<BR/><BR/>Pacification was working but in the fashion described by Tacitus 'the Romans made a wilderness, and called it peace'.<BR/><BR/>A desperate US Administration would, as you have noted, look to widen the war, to 'win' it, and secure advantage at the bargaining table. Hence the secret bombing of Cambodia, the invasion of Cambodia, and later the bloody disaster of Lang Son 719, the ARVN invasion of Laos.<BR/><BR/>ValuethinkerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-14009651161292567882007-08-06T07:08:00.000-04:002007-08-06T07:08:00.000-04:00The clarity of your analysis, and the historical c...The clarity of your analysis, and the historical context, is not something I find anywhere else on the web.<BR/><BR/>(although I will Col. Pat Lang dibs for knowledge of the region and detailed tactical understanding).<BR/><BR/>Vietnam is so similar a situation that it is frightening. False historical analogy can lead us to some terrible blind alleys, but the parallels are so striking.<BR/><BR/>One comment that perfectly summarised the British in this, Ian Jack in the Guardian:<BR/><BR/>'We no longer control Basra. What we have in that base is Rorke's Drift, with air support'.<BR/><BR/>That is such a perfect summary of the situation down there.<BR/><BR/>ValuethinkerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com