Robert Scheer, How Many Body Bags?

[G_j]

HOW MANY BODY BAGS?
Robert Scheer, AlterNet

Unless we are willing to trade the lives of U.S. troops and Iraqis for the obsessions of empire, we must end the occupation now.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17103

<snip>
Why can't we learn from our history in Vietnam and the experiences of the French in Algeria and the Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza that no occupation by an army of "the other" is ever welcome?

Only last week, Israel's army chief of staff issued a warning on the limits of an occupying power to achieve its goals through the exercise of military force. "It increases hatred for Israel and strengthens the terror organizations," Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon told Israeli reporters, adding: "In our tactical interests, we are operating contrary to our strategic interests."

Some pundits and politicians, even those who may have been skeptical about the war to begin with, now argue that we must "finish the job," even if it means increasing our commitment of troops or ruling Iraq indefinitely. This is exactly the kind of stubborn and mushy thinking that led us into the hell of the Vietnam War and the deaths of 58,000 Americans and more than 2 million Vietnamese and Cambodians.

The occupation of Iraq is not working and will not work. For Iraqis, our culture is offensive and our tactics heavy-handed. As none other than the American-sponsored Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi put it after the latest guerrilla attacks: "The Americans, their methods, their operations and their procedures are singularly unsuited to deal with this kind of problem."
..more..

[Racenut20]

1. We knew it was going to go bad

When they immediately moved into the palaces.

[papau]

2. "transfer tubes" - not "body bag" - didn't Scheer get the Bush memo?

:-(