This is veering a wee-bit from the political, but apparently so did my "view on Iraq from Turkey" thread, so here goes...
I haven't read Keegan, a British historian, but he has a new book out which he's pushing stateside and has appeared in a Charlie Rose interview.
I'm fishing for thoughts here.
First of all, he reffered to England as 'Britain', when I thought it was understood it should be 'Great Britain'. His comments on Iraq included an opinion that this was no comparison to Vietnam, which I kind of agree with. But his point was that the two were not comparable because the US lost 58.000 men in Vietnam, as opposed to the few hundred in Iraq so far.
His opinion is also that the Iraqi insurgents/terrorists cannot win in Iraq.
Okay. Now, I know many people are fond of quoting Patton in saying that the military's job is not to die for your country but make the other guy die for his.
But... The VC lost a hell of a lot more people than we did and they still won. They lost boatloads in the '68 Tet offensive and were repelled, but they still won in the end. TV coverage and TV pundits greatly helped in that, some may argue.
Do I think we're going to lose in Iraq? I don't know what we will call victory. I really don't.
This war is not only fought on the ground, it's fought on TV and the results will be 'perceptual'. The word results presumes that this will end somehow.
Can Patton be proven wrong in this day and age of instant communications?
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John Keegan
- Smilie-man'81
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I dont think its a matter of how many enemy troops you kill its more to do with who they kill at the moment. If they are getting large numbers of suspects and doing loads of raids but are losing a soldier a day and still getting attacked it the media will say that there is no headway and say the troops shouldnt be there. If they catch Sadaam it will be completely different.
On the comparrison of Iraq to Vietnam i read a while back it would be better to compare it to N.Ireland.
On the comparrison of Iraq to Vietnam i read a while back it would be better to compare it to N.Ireland.