Victor Davis Hanson: Iraq's Future – and Ours
Posted by quidnunc
On 01/02/2004 4:05:00 PM EST with 31 comments
Commentary Magazine ^ | January 2004 | Victor Davis Hanson
On November 21, 2003, some minor rocket attacks on the Iraqi oil ministry and on two hotels in Baghdad elicited an exceptional amount of attention in the global media. What drew the interest of journalists were the terrorists' mobile launchers: they were crude donkey carts. This peculiar juxtaposition of 8th- and 21st-century technology was taken as emblematic of the entire American experience in Iraq — an increasingly hopeless clash between our overwhelming conventional strength and stealthy terrorists able to turn our own lethal means against us with cheap and ubiquitous native materials. How could we possibly win this contest, when...
Iraq's Future—and Ours (note: long piece)
Posted by Valin
On 01/01/2004 10:09:01 AM EST with 13 comments
Commentary Magazine ^ | Jan. 04 | Victor Davis Hanson
ON NOVEMBER 21, 2003, some minor rocket attacks on the Iraqi oil ministry and on two hotels in Baghdad elicited an exceptional amount of attention in the global media. What drew the interest of journalists were the terrorists' mobile launchers: they were crude donkey carts. This peculiar juxtaposition of 8th- and 21st-century technology was taken as emblematic of the entire American experience in Iraq—an increasingly hopeless clash between our overwhelming conventional strength and stealthy terrorists able to turn our own lethal means against us with cheap and ubiquitous native materials. How could we possibly win this contest, when an illiterate...