Britain Tried First. Iraq Was No Picnic Then.

[DealMonkey]

Interesting comparison between what's happening now in Iraq & what happened over 80 years ago...

CNN.com article

The public, the distinguished military analyst wrote from Baghdad, had been led "into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor."

"They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information," he said. "The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows."

He added: "We are today not far from a disaster."

Sound familiar?

 

[Warin]

Isnt there an old saw about how those that ignore history are destined to repeat it? 😀

One other thing about Colonel Lawrence. While some of his exploits are doubtless exaggerated, his guerrilla tactics are still much studied. He came to realize that when a small band faced more powerful conventional forces, its strength lay in avoiding direct battles and instead conducting stealthy raids. His own guerrilla force, he wrote in his memoir, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," had "a sophisticated alien enemy, disposed as an army of occupation in an area greater than could be dominated effectively from fortified posts. It had a friendly population, in which some 2 in the 100 were active, and the rest quietly sympathetic to the point of not betraying the movements of the minority."

This sounds familiar as well, doesnt it?

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Warin
Isnt there an old saw about how those that ignore history are destined to repeat it? 😀

Just like the old saying that past performance does not guarantee future performance....

 

[Warin]

Your point? Both are 100% correct.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: Warin
Isnt there an old saw about how those that ignore history are destined to repeat it? 😀

Just like the old saying that past performance does not guarantee future performance....

..."past returns"...

 

[MonstaThrilla]

Well if we look at the two successful occupation and rebuilding efforts in US history, that of West Germany and Japan, its easy to see that what made those work was a strong middle class already existing in those countries. A strong, vibrant, content middle class in a country tends to make that country more stable. To truly get Iraq stable, the vast masses need to be content with their current livelihood. Obviously, that's a long way off.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: MonstaThrilla
Well if we look at the two successful occupation and rebuilding efforts in US history, that of West Germany and Japan, its easy to see that what made those work was a strong middle class already existing in those countries. A strong, vibrant, content middle class in a country tends to make that country more stable. To truly get Iraq stable, the vast masses need to be content with their current livelihood. Obviously, that's a long way off.

And both of those occupations took years before the goverment was handed over back to the people of Japan and Germany. Iraq will take time, but it will get there.

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: MonstaThrilla
Well if we look at the two successful occupation and rebuilding efforts in US history, that of West Germany and Japan, its easy to see that what made those work was a strong middle class already existing in those countries. A strong, vibrant, content middle class in a country tends to make that country more stable. To truly get Iraq stable, the vast masses need to be content with their current livelihood. Obviously, that's a long way off.

not really, they have an educated population and an immediate and viable economy based on a revenue producing resource (oil), something Japan and Germany did not, we had to rebuild their manufacturing capability.

I would also point out the majority of Iraqi's did not feel for their leader as the people of Japan and Germany, completely opposite dynamic.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: DealMonkey
Interesting comparison between what's happening now in Iraq & what happened over 80 years ago...

CNN.com article

The public, the distinguished military analyst wrote from Baghdad, had been led "into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor."

"They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information," he said. "The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows."

He added: "We are today not far from a disaster."

Sound familiar?

Yes, this sounds strikingly familiar, almost identical to the New York Times article I read over the weekend... One of them should face plagiarism charges.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Funny that the Iraqis are doing the same thing to us as they did to the Brits. Who could have seen it

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: DealMonkey
Interesting comparison between what's happening now in Iraq & what happened over 80 years ago...

CNN.com article

The public, the distinguished military analyst wrote from Baghdad, had been led "into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor."

"They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information," he said. "The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows."

He added: "We are today not far from a disaster."



Sound familiar?

Yes, this sounds strikingly familiar, almost identical to the New York Times article I read over the weekend... One of them should face plagiarism charges.

I guess they left out that Britain lost about 30,000-40,000 troops......
Other than that, I guess they are similar.

 

[CaptnKirk]

I think you're onto something here. That 'Other' intelligence data that was eluded to . .
was some of that laying around British Inteligence from 80 years before.
Looks the same.
Anything there about 45 minutes ?

I went and looked - and Oh God ! There was !!!

In response, the British turned to technology, with their air force commander, Arthur (Bomber) Harris, boasting that his biplanes had taught Iraqis that "within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be practically wiped out and a third of its inhabitants killed or wounded." Winston Churchill, who, as colonial secretary, presided over the creation of Iraq, Trans-Jordan and Palestine, called Iraq an "ungrateful volcano."

 

[Lucky]

Yes, this sounds strikingly familiar, almost identical to the New York Times article I read over the weekend... One of them should face plagiarism charges.

I must be missing the joke here.