Major Bomb Blast Hits Baghdad Hotel-Will Iraq Be America's

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Poll question: Major Bomb Blast Hits Baghdad Hotel-Will Iraq Be America's

West Bank and Gaza....

Algeria....

India...

Viet Nam...

Other.....


I think Algeria is the best analogy and Viet Nam is the worst... Viet Nam had a huge armed military force and two superpower benefactors-China and the USSR....

[onebigbadwulf]

1. Israel no. 2

We will be giving Iraq money forever and ever, just like we give Israel. It will become our responsibility, our baby. We will have to bail it out of every jam, scuffle, and dispute. We will be obliged to be its unconditional ally as well. Its military is our responsibility and we will never ever be free of the burden that the Bush crime family forced us into.

[Kamika]

2. algeria

WIthout a doubt

in some years when they will have free elections a islamic party will win, this ofcourse will be unacceptable and the current us supported party will remain in power

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. I'd Like To Know Why Folks Say Viet Nam

I like Algeria because it was low and medium grade terrorist activity that ultimately convinced France it wasn't worth it...

India could be an successful example for Iraqis and Palestinians to win self determination...

I do think appeals to American and Israeili consciences could be successful...

It worked in the States... The elites were shamed, cajoled, coerced, you pick the word,into recognizing the rights of the black man...

I don't think passive or non-violent resistance is a panacea but it would work in the above situations...

[quaker bill]

3. West Bank / Gaza

As long as we are occupying it. It has the same dynamic. We push - they blow up something, could go on for the next 30 years...

[Capt_Nemo]

5. This is Lebannon

Remember Amin and Bashir Gemayel brothers? They were the stooges
Israel tryed to prop up in order to get a sattelite state...

Both got blown to pieces, one after the other...

[brokensymmetry]

7. Capt. Nemo's right.

Vietnam, Algeria, and the others all involved long years of conflict. I don't believe we'll stay that long; I suspect we'll leave the place.

The consequences may be dire, but I don't see much that suggests we're winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. And if the level of resistance increases much, we simply don't have the troops or the money to sustain our presence.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. We Broke It

we have a moral , legal, and ethical obligation to fix it....

As Wes Clark said invading Iraq with without a multilateral coalition was the biggest blunder in the history of American diplomacy.

There is much talk of Ike-Clark comparisons on this board and Clark is usually on the short end...

I'd like to see a nice discussion on the backdrop of the 1952 election....

Nobody has mentioned that like now America was at war and in a quagmire in 1952-Korea....

Ike was an uber hero... No doubt.... But if things were great and America was at peace perhaps Stevenson would have won....

Americans not having time even to write the history of WW 2 were involved in a new war in Korea.... They were tired of war....

The General had the perfect opening....

[DemCam]

11. Agree about Ike

But I wonder if Stevenson could ever have overcome the liability of his intelligence...and that ol' unlikeable problem?

The above could just be the sagacities that get passed down in our collective consciousness, all I am beginning to think, based on the revisionism that affects us when we have no direct memories of a time.

Lordy...how will this time be viewed?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. Ike Was Tremendously Popular

but if America was at peace perhaps Stevenson would have won...

On the famous other hand, after twenty years of one party rule Americans may have wanted a change....

I hope we don't have to wait twenty years....

[tinnypriv]

6. Iraq is America's Iraq

Simple.

Using analogies can be useful, but only up to a point.

[bfusco]

9. this is different

While you can draw parallels to other occupations and conflicts and there are elements present in all that you site, every new conflict is unique. While the guerilla attacks in Iraq has some parallels to Vietnam, it is different in the geography, ethnic/religous elements and it does not have two supper powers providing huge amounts of material and logistical support. Vietnam also occurred because the United States intruded into the countries democratic processes (an often ignored fact is the Ho Chi Minh would have been the elected leader until the United States cancelled elections) and attempted to insert their own form of governance. What makes Iraq unique is that we are trying to forge multiple tribal, ethnic and religious factions into a democratic unified nation in an area with no such history. Iraq as a nation is arbitrary and the current borders were created by Great Briton. The nation has a long history of strife and violence and the only way it stayed together was through the iron fist of a dictator who brutalized some groups and favored others. Look at post Titto Yugoslavia, magnify it to the size of Iraq and remove all forms of security and infrastructure that held it the country together. Then insert a security power that is insufficient, ill equipped to the task and completely foreign to the culture and that is what we have now.

[izzie]

10. We have put our selfs into the Mid-East in another way,

We have been in Iran, and Saudi and we protect one ruler after another that those people do not like,and it means years of trouble.It all comes back to get us and it does it over and over an we never learn. We will not have cheap gas for ever and people and business will have to get used to that, just as Europe has. The Middle East has a right to what they want with out us. In a month we could solve this problem. Stop the use of all this oil, we hand the corp the power and the gov to back them up as they know not hardly one person in this country will give up one min, in their cars or keeping their homes under 72 and we all feel we have that right. It is crazy.Sure Bush may break OPEC but then his people become our OPEC.

[screaming_meme]

12. Not Algeria, not Vietnam

France insisted Algeria was as much a part of France as Paris, Provence, or Normandy. Not a colony, a department of the nation of France itself. Pure delusion.

In Vietnam, the US was fighting a liberation movement from overthrowing a friendly government.

What we're doing in Iraq is more like WWII Germany. Invading a country run by a truly evil and vile regime that never attacked us, occupying it and rebuilding it into a modern democratic state.

[Kamika]

13. yes but once theyre "democratic"

Will we allow them to chose whoever they want? i dont think so.


And germany did in a way attack us, they were allies with japan

[jobycom]

14. India

Think British Empire.

[jobycom]

15. or Afghanistan

In Soviet context.

[dutchdemocrat]

16. Somalia

But longer.

[sistersofmercy]

17. West Bank and Gaza because I think that is how the Iraqis see the

US illegal and officially undeclared occupation.
Personally, I'd say Lebanon, there will most likely be fighting for years, decades to come.

[DinahMoeHum]

18. Repeat of Lebanon and Iran. . .

Lebanon - we're repeating the same mistakes made there in the early 1980's, along with Ariel Sharon. That got our embassy blown up in the spring of 1983 and the Marine barracks blown up in October 1983.

Iran - no matter how many puppets we try to put in their government, it will not stand, because they will not have the trust of the population. The country may well go fundamentalist Shiite Muslim, just like Iran. The Shiites have been on the bottom of Iraqi society for way too long, and they are the majority in Iraq as well as in Iran. They will look at this war and this "peace" as their opportunity to take over. And the douchebag * and Co. cannot do anything about it. Tee Hee.

:evilfrown:

[Darranar]

19. America's version of the Soveits in Afghanistan...

In Algeria, the resistance fighters weren't too well trained. We'll be seeing some professional jihadists comign in.

There is no civilian locale nearby for suicide bombers, so it's no West Bank.

Vietnam was a war between two nations that the US intervened in; it was a regional conflict before the US came in. Bad analogy.

India was mostly peaceful resistance. We aren't going to see too much of that.

I think an Afghanistan-style situation will arise, with fights among the resistance force and an Islamic state afterwards, unless the US does this right and turns the whole thing over to the UN. The only difference is that this time no supwerpower will be arming them.

[PapaClay]

21. Deja Vu

Grunts patrolling in small groups in a hostile environment looking for an unrecognizable enemy and signs of the next ambush. Brass and in-country politicos safely ensconced in comfortable, maximum security compounds. DCs testing and fielding new hardware at a hefty profit. While back at home, we hear spin that is reminiscent of 'pacification' and 'hearts and minds'; and families shudder at the sight of an official vehicle in the neighborhood.

Analogies can be argued. Body bags can't.