Why Iraq WON'T fail

[I'm a journalist, pure and simple; I don't support war nor do I protest it, I learn from those that do and report my experience]

There's been lots of talk lately about the U.S. conflict in Iraq being just "another Vietnam." The difference is... we failed with Vietnam War, we won't fail in Iraq.

We, the United States, haven't won a war since World War II—a war being defined as a major, long-term military conflict (i.e., Korea and Vietnam). We need to stay out of wars altogether, I think everyone will agree, but if that's not going to be possible, then we sure need to win one... And that's exactly why Iraq WON'T fail.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Downing Street memo, attempting to spreading democracy in the Middle East (if possible) in an effort to fight terrorism presents some possiblity, but has yet to be seen." Since the begining of this invasion (call it what it is), I've spent a lot of time on trying to understand and explain how this will work. It's easy now to see why it might have been a mistake, so why bother.

The term axis of evil was used by United States President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002 to describe "regimes that sponsor terror". The states Bush originally gave in his speech were Iraq, Iran and North Korea... The term itself is reminiscent of the Axis powers of World War II and of President Reagan's evil empire designation of the Soviet Union.

As far as the talk on Bush's "not telling us the truth about why we should attack Iraq," we have been given inaccurate, pre-war data from presidents during every war since World War I to get us on their (the government's) side. That's nothing new, nor is it likely to change soon, as long as the government holds the information 'til it's too late. Sometimes works out to our, or at least our ally's, benefit (World War I and II), sometimes not (Korea and Vietnam).

I still haven't had a lot of success with the "understanding and explaining" part... yet, but one thing I'm going on the record with is: "Iraq won't fail," because it's not another Vietnam:

  1. Vietnam is mostly an isolated strip; Iraq is surrounded by six neighbors

  2. Vietnam lacked major resourses that we needed; Iraq has much needed oil

  3. Vietnam was about fighting communists; Iraq is about fighting terrorists

  4. Vietnam wasn't a world threat; Iraq is now the poster child of rebellion

We, the United States, may fail within ourselves over Iraq, if popular opinion continues to pressure politicians, although I really doubt it with so much on the line. But you can be sure that Europe and the Middle-East WON'T let Iraq fail.

Reporting from the underground...

Stan Morris

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