Wednesday, April 28, 2004
THE ONLY WAY THEY WIN
The "siege" of Fallujah, and to a lesser extent the battle with the, as the BBC terms them, Shia "militiamen" in Najaf are typical of an enemy fighting a political war. Even everyone's currently favorite "cleric" picked up on the "Vietnam" theme, demonstrating that the enemy knows full-well that since they cannot defeat the coalition militarily, they must at least demoralize and discourage Americans -- in order to achieve a very specific result.
George W. Bush would probably be the first to state he is no Lincoln. (Although the Washington Post's Richard Cohen does think Bush is another Woodrow Wilson.) But in terms of tactics and strategy, the enemy's only hope today is similar to that which had been the Confederacy's: Northerners had to be encouraged to vote out Lincoln in November 1864.
Is this now our generation's Union summer of 1864, when things seemed stalemated and the war endless, when actually within months it was to become crystal clear that neither was to be the case?
Today's enemy needs Americans to vote out Bush and replace him with the "war hero" McClellan -- sorry, "war hero" Kerry. That is their only slim chance for some sort of victory. The question is: Will Americans give them that chance come November? ¶ by Robert, Wednesday, April 28, 2004
The "siege" of Fallujah, and to a lesser extent the battle with the, as the BBC terms them, Shia "militiamen" in Najaf are typical of an enemy fighting a political war. Even everyone's currently favorite "cleric" picked up on the "Vietnam" theme, demonstrating that the enemy knows full-well that since they cannot defeat the coalition militarily, they must at least demoralize and discourage Americans -- in order to achieve a very specific result.
George W. Bush would probably be the first to state he is no Lincoln. (Although the Washington Post's Richard Cohen does think Bush is another Woodrow Wilson.) But in terms of tactics and strategy, the enemy's only hope today is similar to that which had been the Confederacy's: Northerners had to be encouraged to vote out Lincoln in November 1864.
Is this now our generation's Union summer of 1864, when things seemed stalemated and the war endless, when actually within months it was to become crystal clear that neither was to be the case?
Today's enemy needs Americans to vote out Bush and replace him with the "war hero" McClellan -- sorry, "war hero" Kerry. That is their only slim chance for some sort of victory. The question is: Will Americans give them that chance come November? ¶ by Robert, Wednesday, April 28, 2004
