Is Iraq Vietnam? Is the current violence there equivalent to the Tet Offensive?
Current White House propaganda has Bush suggesting we might be in a Tet-like situation in Iraq now. Discussion over what he is trying to put across with this remark ranges from "He means the media is painting a misleading picture of failure" to "He is admitting we are seeing a peak in violence, but hinting it will pass."
But there is a big difference.
Tet -- that was a major attack on Saigon by North Vietnamese regular army forces, in a nation divided in half many years before the arrival of the U.S. military.
I think the Iraq quagmire now is something else altogether. I think it is the carving up of what was -- prior to U.S. invasion -- a nation, into warring factions. Madly armed and well-funded factions. Carving up into a half-dozen mini-states, each one itself riven by violent local factions, and undermined by regional influences.
more...
For instance:
The heavily armed militia of Muqtada al-Sadr has taken over the city of Amarah, which the British Army abandoned about 60 days ago. At the time, according to the Washington Post, the Brits had decided that they had better become the guerrillas!
The British soldiers, members of the Queen's Royal Hussars, are preparing to trade their heavy Challenger 2 tanks and Warrior fighting vehicles for lightweight Land Rovers, Burbridge said. They expect to become a flexible, mobile force with no fixed base and receive supplies by airdrops.
According to this Associated Press report (tip of hat to rawstory and note - there is a related diary today here:http://www.dailykos.com/...), Sadr's Mahdi Army has been fighting the another big Shiite force, the Badr militia:
Since British troops left Amarah in August, residents say the [Mahdi] militia has been involved in a series of killings, including slayings of merchants suspected of selling alcohol and women alleged to have engaged in behavior deemed immoral by militiamen.
It is despairingly clear that the Amarah situation is being repeated all around the poor, g****mned country of Iraq.
As usual, remarks by Bush - whatever the hell he means by them - are far behind the reality curve, not to mention deep into the fog of war and the shadow of tyranny.
We must install the new upgrade in our government software system, starting on Nov. 7.