The American Spectator

Another Perspective

(Page 3 of 5)

Iraqis fighting each other . But that will change soon enough. Once we offer them a target that is big enough, they'll all turn against us.

That final bullet is worth dwelling on, since it's eerily reminiscent of what General William Westmoreland was telling President Johnson in 1965. We had already been in Vietnam four years as "military advisers" and commandos (the Green Berets) trying to put the South Vietnamese Army on its feet. Then Westmoreland came back with the bad news -- they couldn't handle it. We needed American soldiers to do the job -- 50,000 at first, although within four years it was up to 500,000 and still asking for more.

What that bullet point says is that, after four years in Iraq, we are still at the beginning of the process. It will only take another 20,000 troops, but if that doesn't work it will be 50,000. Pretty soon our casualties will mount and we certainly can't give up at that point - that would be a blot on our honor.

p>Just how many enemies we'll soon be fighting is made clear by the following eight-or-so slides in which Kagan is forced to employ 10-point type to detail them all: br> /p> blockquote>Shia Fighters: p>- Jaysh al-Mahdi and other Sadrists: Objectives: br> * Rivalry with other Shia factions for master of the Iraqi government post-Coalition withdrawal and imposition of Shia Sharia law... /p> p>- Badr Corps and other Politically affiliated Militia, Objectives: br> * Revenge killings of Sunni militants, and intimidation murder/torture of Sunni civilians to drive them from mixed districts... /p> p>- Shia Vigilantes: objectives:

topics:
Islam, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran