I had dinner and drinks with a fellow and his lovely wife last night who does high-level strategic and tactical consulting for the US government…
This particularly hawkish fellow had an interesting answer when I asked him what he would wish the US would do in Irag if he had three wishes and couldn’t just undo the war or anything sneaky like that.
Guess what he said, “I would only need one wish and my one wish would be to immediately pull all American and allied troops out of Iraq and let everything fall where it may.”
He added that all indicators and all reports echo Vietman exactly; although this conflict is much worse with much less coverage. Why? Well even died-in-the-wool war correspondents are afraid to be there and are sporting full combat coverage and body armor, including helmets and vests.
He also suggested that all this war between the insurgents and the west is doing is allowing the tribal heads to sieze power and turn Iraq into yet another Mogadishu.
Food for thought. Of course, there are analysts on the ground who are writing up all of these recommendations, most of which are being censured.
Oh, and he also said that Donald H. Rumsfeld is doing the best he can, all things being equal. Rumsdeld is in much the same position (corner) that Robert S. McNamara was in Vietnam.
“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” – George Bernard Shaw
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana
“What experience and history teach is this — that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles.” – George Wilhelm Hegel
“Patriotism ruins history.” – Goethe
“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.” – Gustave Flaubert
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” – Karl Marx
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candice olson
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