OxBlog

Comments:

Maybe the US Adminstration should have listened to the British regarding the importance of hearts and minds before starting the war and thought more seriously about minimising the loss of civilian lives from day one. 13 people were killed by the British on Bloody Sunday and this resulted in 30 years of terrorism and violence... learning from the British, at this point, is too late. The harm has been done and Iraqi hearts and minds have been lost for a generation.

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:15 AM

Fantastic

This is not going to work. I'm sorry, but Iraq isn't a similar enough case to Malaya. There won't be enough troops. Can anyone else see this?

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:15 PM

I have a suspicion that the British knew what they were trying to achieve in Malaya and also knew what the enemy were trying to achieve.

# posted by

dearieme : 3:00 PM

Counter-insurgency operations are not going to work in Iraq. The opposition is too well armed, funded and resupplied from areas in Syria, Iran, and yes, Saudi Arabia.

Americans should face the obvious before we needlessly waste more lives and money in this calamity. It seems we are more concerned more about not losing this war than winning. The U.S. needs a Cold War style military. The cuts of the past 15 years have been to deep, and the results are we have a military that is a shadow of its former self.

With a population of 300 million people the US has a standing army of only 473,000 men and women, in which only 20% are combat troops. What a joke!

Danny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana

# posted by

DannyLMcDaniel : 4:49 PM

I hope wé´re all aware that the british didn´t actually win in N Ireland. At best, they were able to fight the IRA to a standstill, and limit its capabilities of killing garrison troops, but not destroy it or prevent its capacity to carry out operations against economic, civilian or police targets. And that was with the support of the 60% majority Protestant population - a circumstance which does not pertain in Iraq.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:16 AM

Given the fact the poster is named Patrick, isn't there a hint of irony in the italics-drenched 'fantastic' applied to using British NI policy as a model? Just pointing out something other commenters seemed to ignore....

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:22 PM

Yes, I'd love to see us try to forcibly deport the entire Sunni population of Baghdad into fortified villages. That worked so well in Vietnam, when they tried it then (see the fantastic success of the "Strategic Hamlet" program, overseen by Sir Robert Thompson). But why bother with American troops when the Mahdi Army is already doing the job for us?

# posted by

Tequila : 8:58 AM