[Sam the Sham]

Bottom line, the odds are all in the favor of those putting down the resistance/insurgency.

The first line of defense in counter insurgency warfare is a functioning civil government. The cop on the beat. Normal law enforcement. These things do not exist in Iraq. The local police forces have been intimidated into neutrality or are riddled with insurgent informers and sympathizers. What intelligence apparatus do we have in Iraq ? Do we have vast numbers of people with native fluency in Arabic who can do hearts and minds work and intelligence analysis ?

The odds are not in our favor.

[LS]

Quite the contrary, the numbers are overwhelmingly in our favor. They don't have to wear American uniforms to help us. The "problems" you raise were, in fact, all common to every one of the insurgencies I listed. Often, it was much worse. And in Iraq, we have a trump card that NO previous insurgency has ever had (well, except Mexico in the 1840s) which is that we can bring the dictator back at any time, because WE HAVE HIM!!