A guerrilla war takes root

[Pale Blue Dot]

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is outraged. U.S. President George W. Bush makes his usual clumsy attempt to paint the Iraqi resistance as just another bunch of "terrorists," and to link them with some worldwide conspiracy of terrorists who attack the United States because "they hate freedom."

All the usual suspects express their shock that the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad has been bombed. And you wonder: Can they really be surprised?

To adapt Bill Clinton's famous phrase: It's a war, stupid.

In the first phase of the war, cluster bombs were the weapon of choice, and so the United States won. Now we have moved into the phase where the dominant weapon is the truck bomb and that levels the playing field. A classic guerrilla war is taking shape in Iraq and such wars are a contest not of technology, but will.

In this sort of struggle, guerrillas have several inbuilt advantages. They are at home, among friends and relatives, with all the local knowledge (starting with language) that the foreign troops lack. They can wrap themselves in the local flag (or increasingly, in the case of the non-Baathist resistance in Iraq, in the green banner of Islam), options that are simply unavailable to the occupying forces.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1061331013547&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

[lanlady]

1. Really excellent piece

thanks for posting.

La politique du pire captures the situation exactly.

[Dhalgren]

2. This is an amazing development, isn't it?

Those who were protesting the entrance of the US into this illegal war kept telling anyone who would listen that the US was getting in over its head. But the "patriots" kept insisting that we'd "roll" over Saddam's army in a matter of weeks. That wasn't the point, THIS is the point!
The Emperor has managed to to have the world's greatest military be outclassed by barefoot guys in the desert with old surplus weapons and a reason to fight. Man, isn't our Emperor just the best!

[Larkspur]

3. Yes, excellent article

.

[4dsc]

4. wasn't this predicted

by anti-war protesters?? What did this administration believe was going to happen??


DEAN in 2004