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That is right, Vietnam is not the good compareson.

But Afghanistan, what it was to the Soviets...

Is that so crasy?

The arabs never been great fans of the US, that is no secret.
They also learned in the past 50 years that their chance against the US with traditional warfare is like the trojan horse would have on the Epson derby.

But Iraq come to them as the golden opportunity.
A nation used to live under little comfort and developed great souspison against the US.
Saddam trained its militia on guerilla warfare, but suprisingly they did not meant mutch resistance during the weeks of the war.
After the war finished officially, the resistance increased the pressure, with the help of countless "foreigners" from the neighbouring arab countries, who wants to see the US fail in Iraq.
It looks like there are no shortage of explosives for the IED-s. The daily average of 25 attacs a day needs a lot of "improvisation" in a year, not to mention the explosives.
Now the half of the 200.000 police prooved to be useless for the coalition, but they have american training and they know the methods how to to fight against the insurgents, and no doubts they will pass the info to them.
There are reports of food shortages in areas, because the supply routes not completly controlled by the coalition.
That is true, they do not want the power to given to the Iraqi people... They want the US to stay and spend their citizens tax-money on extra security, bribes, and somtimes importing oil to Iraq...

For more than a year, Bin Laden - under constant siege - does not seem to have much problem giving orders and inspirations to his fanatic islam followers, who's camp seems to grow by the day.

So in short, a low level resistance with outside help slowly isolate the US then increase the cost of the war to a level it have to choose different methods to "protect its interests"...

I just wonder what cost the US willing to pay for removing a cruel dictator...

If we hadn't been supplying weapons, donkeys and training to the Mujahadien Afghanistan for the Soviets would have been a cake walk. The resistance ammounted to nothing before we turned it into a proxy war, even then it didn't go badly for the Russians until we gave the other side SAMs. We did to them in Afghanistan what they did to us in Viet Nam, during the Cold War no hot war was exactly what it appeared. The bad guys in Iraq don't have a super power backing them, they've got backing but not to the level we gave in Afghanistan or Russia gave in Viet Nam. And meanwhile the people giving the bad guys backing are focusing on our troops in the Middle East instead of focusing on our civilians in NYC, which works well for us since our troops are better equiped to shoot back.

How long will the 11th century mind set of killers be able to withstand the power of freedom?

Students of Mustansirihya University participate in a student forum held at Baghdad University. The forum gave student the opportunity to ask questions of an assembled panel made up of commanders from the 1st Armored Division and a representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority. U.S. Army photo

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 1, 2004 — Students of Mustansirihya University freely exchanged ideas among themselves and with leaders from the Coalition Provisional Authority and Task Force 1st Armored Division during an open forum held at Baghdad University March 29.

.......While engaging the panel in discussion, students also took the opportunity to address their peers. “I, for one, would like to thank the coalition for all that they have done,” said an engineering student. “I disagree with many (the students) that (coalition forces) should leave Iraq immediately. We are not yet ready to stand on our own.”

The comment launched the student body into a heated discussion until the forum moderator reestablished control and got the meeting back on track. After an hour of discussion, the forum broke for refreshments and gave the students an opportunity for worship.

Reconvening half an hour later, a smaller audience picked up where it left off, engaging the panel for an additional 45 minutes. Davis, bringing the forum to a close, thanked the students and the panel members for their attendance and time and offered hope that forums of this nature would continue in the future. “There are many people who would intimidate you to think a certain way,” Dempsey told the students. “It is important to note, we don’t care what you think, as long as you are free to come to that conclusion on your own.”