Remember these arrogant--and completely erroneous--forecasts from Cheney, Perle and the other war-mongering "compassionate conservatives"?: "'I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.'
... the Iraqi opposition would 'collapse after the first whiff of gunpowder'
..."Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of jihad. Moderates throughout the region would take heart."

Compare that lot of hot air with a more sober, and accurate appraisal from "the late General Vo Nguyen Giap, the victor of Indochina. "The enemy will pass slowly from the offensive to the defensive," he said in a landmark speech to his troops. "The blitzkrieg will transform itself into a war of long duration. Thus, the enemy will be caught in a dilemma: he has to drag out the war in order to win it but he does not possess, on the other hand, the psychological and political means to fight a long, drawn-out war."
Giap was assessing the French in Vietnam in 1950, and he got it right again with the Nixon administration in 1970, predicting that American public opinion would eventually want out."

The US public does not have the heart this time for a long drawn out conflict, and despite the Bushies attempts to control the news coming out of Iraq, the disaster there is becoming clear back home. The military and reserve families who are protesting are the beginning of the end for Bush. The center will not hold for him. He has lost Iraq. And created a disaster for the middle east and the world. Whether he will lose the election in 04 is another matter. That depends on whether or not we still have a democracy next November. And that to me is a real question, with this administration in power.
- posted by geoff @ #