Any word on who mailed those Anthrax letters yet?
The risk of a 'Tet' in Iraq?
ANALYSIS By Michael Moran
M$NBC News
Somewhere in Iraq right now, right this very moment, a scheme to deliver
a knockout blow to the American-led force occupying the country is almost
certainly being planned. Like all such plans devised by guerrillas
fighting a vastly superior force, this one aims to make up for what the
Iraqi resistance lacks in firepower with sheer, unadulterated bloodshed.
"In Iraq, there is no doubt in the minds of anyone with more than a few
working brain cells [Oops, that leaves out the Bu$h administration -OBK]
that something more formidable than routine troop ambushes is being
planned, and perhaps by more than one entity," says retired Army Col.
Jack Jacobs, an MSNBC military analyst. "Any party to a conflict is
always looking for the knockout punch that will end things quickly."
THE DEMOCRACY DILEMMA
One of the few real vulnerabilities of the American military in the past
40 years, analysts and historians note, is the risk that major casualties
or a single spectacular failure can cause public support to collapse.
Such a collapse exposes elected leaders to enormous political pressure,
particularly in election years and if U.S. casualties continue to mount.
America's enemies know this well and in the past four decades have
exploited it adroitly.
In the 1968 Tet Offensive, simultaneous attacks on American and South
Vietnamese positions by North Vietnam and its Viet Cong allies around the
country led to huge casualties for the North, but also showed optimistic
assessments of a "light at the end of the tunnel" to be hollow. American
troops numbers in Vietnam began to fall immediately, and aides to
President Lyndon Johnson say Tet played a big role in his decision chose
not to seek another term. The term "Vietnamization," a Nixonian reference
to the need to get American forces out, became official U.S. policy soon
afterward.
In 1983, after U.S. and French troops intervened in southern Lebanon to
control the fallout of the Israeli invasion there, a Hezbollah truck bomb
destroyed of the main U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241
Americans. The Marines were supposed to help stabilize a new Lebanese
government and prevent the Lebanese and Palestinian guerrillas from re-
engaging. But the bombing led to a quick withdrawal and the descent of
Lebanon back into chaos.
In 1993, the U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia deteriorated when
American troops became embroiled in the country's civil war. In October
of that year, U.S. Army Rangers and other forces were lured into an
ambush in the capital city of Mogadishu, leaving 18 American soldiers
dead. By the end of the year, all U.S. forces had withdrawn.
In each of these attacks, the main objective was not a military victory
per se, but rather the destruction of America's will to fight by
demonstrating to the American public that the progress being touted by
its leadership was an illusion.
Gen. Montgomery Meigs, who retired recently as the U.S. Army's top
commander in Europe, worries about how this dynamic might play out in
Iraq.
"With the pressure on the (Bush) administration from the changing
political sentiment back home and an election around the bend, there will
be a temptation to make the campaign look successful, to encourage
commanders on the ground to minimize casualties, and to 'turn security
and governance' over to the Iraqi's well before they can handle the
task," he says.
WHAT KIND OF STRIKE?
The military in Iraq has taken great pains to reduce the likelihood of a
Beirut-style disaster, dispersing units as much as possible and keeping
those who must be massed together in places like Baghdad behind enormous
layers of security.
"Absent American forces providing the bad guys with a juicy target of
opportunity, like a large base unattended, a huge convoy without
security, shooting down a plane at Baghdad airport, the most likely
events are large-scale attacks against soft civilian targets in Iraq,
designed to produce masses of Iraqi casualties," says Jacobs, who was
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in Vietnam shortly before Tet.
"This will inflame Iraqi opinion against the U.S., cause the [Iraqi]
government to demand immediate independence and Democrats will seize on
the events to heap invective on the administration and demand an outline
of the plan to combat the deteriorating situation, for which the
administration has no answer."
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Rebel Alliance Galactic Usenet News Service
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http://snurl.com/27tb | http://snurl.com/25dx
http://www.irregulartimes.com/darthbush.html
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| User: "Light Templar" |
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| Title: Re: Saddam's Tet Offensive Still to Come? |
03 Oct 2003 10:43:15 PM |
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"Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñoßí®" <abuse@anarchy.gov> wrote in message
news:Xns94091829D9D170001138@r2-dv8.anarchy.gov...
Any word on who mailed those Anthrax letters yet?
Your mom?
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| User: "Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñoßí®" |
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| Title: Re: Saddam's Tet Offensive Still to Come? |
05 Oct 2003 05:46:36 PM |
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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, "Light Templar"
<I@DONTACCEPTEMAIL.FAM> wrote:
"Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñoßí®" <abuse@anarchy.gov> wrote in message
news:Xns94091829D9D170001138@r2-dv8.anarchy.gov...
Any word on who mailed those Anthrax letters yet?
Your mom?
If only it was that simple, my son.
--
-------------------------------------------
Rebel Alliance Galactic Usenet News Service
-------------------------------------------
http://snurl.com/27tb | http://snurl.com/25dx
http://www.irregulartimes.com/darthbush.html
.
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| User: "Light Templar" |
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| Title: Re: Saddam's Tet Offensive Still to Come? |
05 Oct 2003 08:18:28 PM |
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"Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñoßí®" <abuse@anarchy.gov> wrote in message
news:Xns940BBF01A17CF0001138@r2-dv8.anarchy.gov...
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, "Light Templar"
<I@DONTACCEPTEMAIL.FAM> wrote:
"Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñoßí®" <abuse@anarchy.gov> wrote in message
news:Xns94091829D9D170001138@r2-dv8.anarchy.gov...
Any word on who mailed those Anthrax letters yet?
Your mom?
If only it was that simple, my son.
It is boy, it is.
.
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| User: "Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñoßí®" |
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| Title: Re: Saddam's Tet Offensive Still to Come? |
08 Oct 2003 02:50:15 AM |
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|
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, "Light Templar"
<I@DONTACCEPTEMAIL.FAM> wrote:
"Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñoßí®" <abuse@anarchy.gov> wrote in message
news:Xns940BBF01A17CF0001138@r2-dv8.anarchy.gov...
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, "Light Templar"
<I@DONTACCEPTEMAIL.FAM> wrote:
"Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñoßí®" <abuse@anarchy.gov> wrote in message
news:Xns94091829D9D170001138@r2-dv8.anarchy.gov...
Any word on who mailed those Anthrax letters yet?
Your mom?
If only it was that simple, my son.
It is boy, it is.
Well then maybe you should tell the FBI that Mrs. Kenobi mailed the Anthrax
letters, I am sure they would be interested in knowing that information.
--
-------------------------------------------
Rebel Alliance Galactic Usenet News Service
-------------------------------------------
http://snurl.com/27tb | http://snurl.com/25dx
http://www.irregulartimes.com/darthbush.html.
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