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November 11, 2004
The Vietnamization of Iraq
Iraq had little in common with Vietnam, but the style of American politics and warfare is turning it more and more into that kind of conflict.
Democracy cannot be enforced through the barrel of a gun. Forcing people to take part in political processes leads to the creation of a dictatorship. Once the killing starts, positions become entrenched and people are no longer interested in voting against each other. One side has to seize power. This is what happened in Vietnam. That is what is happening in Iraq.
Robin Cook claimed yesterday that the problems in Falluja dated back to the month after the US-led coalition had invaded Iraq: “A number of parents complained their school had been occupied by the American military and 20 of the [unarmed] protestors were shot dead … From then on the heavy-handed operations in Iraq have bred resistance and these operations will increase the resistance again… This really has got to be the end of the strategy of trying to pacify Iraq by bombing it.”
The Americans have the firepower to destroy Fallujah several times over, but they don’t have the ability, the necessary local knowledge and intelligence, to do anything positive there - and that includes capturing real terrorists.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3998425.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at November 11, 2004 01:59 AM
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