Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Tuesday, November 9

Well, the battle continues. Your Rumsfeld argues that the defeat of the insurgents in Fallujah will herald a consensus amongst the Iraqi people that the American presence in their country will soon lead to stability and democratic elections. Personally, I'm not so sure. I confess that Rumsfeld has more facts at his disposal than do I. All I have going for me is history, and history suggests that the occupation of one's country by a foreign entity is never an acceptable situation to the populace. We ourselves, as Americans, should know that from our history, our insurgents having finally succeeded in booting out the British all those years ago. (Bush, I have to confess here that I'm a Brit in origin, a mere immigrant in this country. But a naturalized citizen nonetheless.) More recently, consider Viet Nam. We mistook their "patriots" for "insurgents." Or look at the mess that Israel is in!
Ten thousand American marines and one thousand Iraqi troops! Hi-tech equipment versus a ragtag assortment of fighters (remember Reagan's "freedom fighters"?) armed with stolen weapons and home-made bombs. Ah, but then the British army, all those years ago, was the arm of the most powerful country in the world. Your Cheney's wife, Lynne, was on the television this morning, arguing that the difference between then and now was that our insurgents had the great cause of freedom motivating them. I wonder what motivates that resistance in Iraq? I suspect it might be their sense of their own freedom: "God is Great!" Like you, they think they have God and rectitude on their side

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