|
Second World War wher our belief in our military might and our short term focus have managed to blind us to the reality of how other people see us.We simply think that our military power will prevali over the primitive societies.In Iraq, the insurgents are fighting for their country against foreign invaders ( that is us) and they are going to fight for ten, twenty, fifty years or however long it takes to expel us.Our focus is on what we will be able to do in the next few weeks.In the end our puppet strong man,Iyad Allawi, will be forced to flee when the people of Iraq prevail. The example of the Shah of Iran should remind us that the megalomaniac Shah despite all the power he had was overthrown when the Ayatollah Khomeini roused his people against us.
This pattern started with our China debacle.There we took the side of Chiang against Mao because we did not beleiev that Mao's ragtag army of guerillas could overthrow the well armed Chiang.This experience was repeated in Korea, Vietnam, Guatemala,Cuba, Chile and now Iraq.
Until we have leaders who understand what our own history teaches us we will go from one quagmire to the other with its attendant costs in lives and money.Who is going to break this vicious cycle?
|