Thursday, May 15, 2003

The US victory in Iraq seems to be unraveling a bit. Winning the military part was easy with the best equiped and best motivated soldiers in the world, but winning hearts and minds is going to be very difficult, if not impossible:

First, there's the situation on the ground in Iraq. After a series of attacks on GIs, the American "peacekeepers" adopted the same modus operandi they used in Bosnia: Forces have been under orders to travel as little as possible. It's especially critical to avoid casualties now, as body bags might upstage the administration's declare-victory-and-let's-cut-taxes blitz. Of course, the problem is that not much policing — let alone nation-building — gets done.
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