I hate to say I told you so, but

I like many others knew the war in Iraq could never be won. I knew and exspoused to others until I was almost blue in the face, and at very great odds, that we would most certainly win the battle but never win the war.

 The Iraqi's did just what I expected them to do, scatter to the four winds to fight another day in a guerilla war scenario, attack and flee. One thing they didn't do on a large scale that I thought they would do was to let us come in then as guerillas in civilian dress, go around our attack force and attack our supply lines with small but effective strikes. A military can not move without gasoline or other supplies, as what basically happened in WWII in the battle of the bulge. The Germans in many tank divisions ran out of fuel. And the single most reason I knew

we could never win in Iraq and still can't is a basic human nature factor. It happens in almost every war. It's not so much who's right or wrong or who's side God is on (which is totally ridicules because God is on no ones side), but rather what you are fighting for. The Iraqis are fighting for their homeland, what is theirs, their place under the sun. They were attacked when they were threatening no one. They are going to fight in some fashion with more determination and in something they truly believe in more than our own forces do, no matter how much rah-rah Bush, Cheney and Rice can muster. When you know or find out just why or what you are fighting for and you don't believe in the cause you're moral and fighting spirit drops, and sometimes dramatically. This along with public sentiment and awareness is what stopped the fight for Vietnam.

 It happened in our own Revolutionary War. We also used guerilla warefare, something we learned a lot about from the original Americans, the American Indians. We knew that we couldn't go toe to toe with the British. The British fought hard and tough but we were going to fight harder and tougher longer. Why, because this was our home and we were being attacked by a foriegn invader. The British soldiers basically lost their spirit fighting for a cause that they personally and most likely didn't believe in, the enslavement of Americans. I know it doesn't always happen. Take for instance Israel in 70 A.D. when they valiantly fought the dark evil Roman Empire to try to rid them of their homeland. They failed, not because of the lack of fight in them but rather they were severely out numbered and Rome scattered them to the four winds so they could no longer be a thorn in their side. Rome was always fighting terrorism in the countries they conquered just as we are today. And as Britain and France did in their colonies.

 We are fighting an unseen force but a force none the less and it is a real, viable powerfull force and one we should back away from before it escalates into armeggeddon. And it will. It is the human nature factor that is driving this war on the Iraqis side of things and that's why we will never win anything in the middle east and be worried about terrorism as long as we are over there either as a fighting force or an occupier with our 14 or so permanent military bases in the middle east. Get the Fuck Out Now!!!  

•  Occupier Can Win If They Get Rid of Most of the

  home population through relocation or worse.

  Ireland's population went down by half between famine and emigration, but judging by the eventual win for most of the island's independence, half evidently wasn't enough of a cut to make them sufficiently manageable.

  Iraq's only had 5-10% of its population flee so far.

  But nothing's crazy enough any more, what with all options being officially stated to be on the table.

  by Gooserock on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 11:37:04 AM PDT

  •  an occupation force...

    ...is doomed to fail in these circumstances.

    but, as you imply, genocide is always a fall-back option of the aggressor.  it is certainly true that there will be extensive ethnic-cleansing operations forthcoming in anbar province as the surge utilizes maliki's death squads to eliminate sunni opposition.

    there is a wonderful literature out there on insurgency and counter-insurgency...i talked about it a bit in an old diary.

    Why Bush's escalation is 'the last throes of the COUNTER-insurgency'

    by james risser on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 11:54:17 AM PDT

  •  Yeah

    let's nuke 'em at least 3/4 of 'em so we can make them impotent as human beings and put them on reservations just like we did to those dirty savages, the American Indians. Simple! I'm English and Irish American and I detest with hate what the British did to the Irish people and others around the world. " Let them eat potatoes ." Or ," Let them eat grass." The British were not much better than the Nazis throughout their history. During the Boer War in Africa the British built the first concentration camps where they systematically starved some 60,000 men , women and children to death and into submission. They set an example for Hitler to follow. Hitler also admired the way in which we Americans handled our Indian problem and also learned from us. GET THE FUCK OUT NOW!! And let them have their place in the sun and then give them respect as human beings and make peace with them.

    by white is black on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 12:12:57 PM PDT

•  it's no wonder

  when a foreign, christian army invades a muslim country with the goal of imposing their foreign way of life onto them, we wonder why they don't want to play along?

  by SeanF on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 11:42:56 AM PDT

  •  Because we are DUMB!

    by LibertyGuard on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 11:49:10 AM PDT

    •  From generation to generation we

      tend to forget the lessons learned from previous ones. And that's what the current admin. has been counting on. This new generation wasn't around during the Nam and didn't feel it. The Bush admin. though learned it's lessons well. Why do you think we don't have a draft for this war? Why are they trying to limit news coverage of events in this war, showing no American coffins... And as a nation our children are being dumb downed.

       " If a nation expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never will be."

              Thomas Jefferson

      by white is black on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 12:23:57 PM PDT

•  Original tags:

  An invisible force, human nature in war

  Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor when US cut off oil exports. US attacked Iraq to control ME oil & keep it away from China. Germany was defeated by cutting off its access to oil. Luftwaffe was virtually non-existent by Feb 13-14, 1945 when Dresden was obliterated. Why did we do that?

  I hear Ft. Detrick is working on population-specific germ warfare.

  by Halcyon on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 11:57:37 AM PDT

•  Depends on what you mean by "win"

  If by "win" you mean a military victory, done.

  If by win you mean a stable democratic nation, game over!

  by Dcoronata on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 12:04:53 PM PDT

  •  There can

    be NO win in Iraq or the Middle East.

    by white is black on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 12:29:03 PM PDT

•  Geez, I really love to say

  "I told you so."

  Been saying it for a long time now, too.

  by Miss Mannered on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 12:22:09 PM PDT