Chalmers Johnson: Hawks come home to roost [ 04nov03 ]: "On Sunday, Iraqi guerrillas downed a US military transport helicopter near Baghdad airport, killing 16 and wounding 20. Thus began the post-Tet phase of the current re-enactment of the Vietnam War. US leaders immediately echoed the old Lyndon Johnson refrains - there will be 'tragic' days ahead, we are being 'tested' in Iraq by foreign infiltrators, we must 'stay the course,' we dare not 'cut and run'. This is nonsense. The US will be leaving Iraq in disgrace sooner or later. The Iraqis are behaving just like the Vietnamese - and as any patriot (American, Australian, or Chinese) would - if invaded by self-righteous, hypocritical imperialists bent on stealing their resources. Why the British and Australians joined the Americans in this fiasco when they could so easily have stood for something other than 'might makes right' remains a mystery."

"Two years after September 11, America is unquestionably in greater danger of serious terrorist threats than it has ever been before. The Afghan and Iraq wars resulted in easy US "victories", but both soon re-erupted as guerilla struggles of attrition. Experience has shown that hi-tech armed forces are inappropriate, overly blunt instruments against terrorists and guerillas. What was called for was international police co-operation to hunt down the September 11 terrorists and changes in US foreign policy to separate militant activists from their passive supporters, whose grievances need to be addressed."

Chalmers Johnson: Hawks come home to roost [ 04nov03 ]: "On Sunday, Iraqi guerrillas downed a US military transport helicopter near Baghdad airport, killing 16 and wounding 20. Thus began the post-Tet phase of the current re-enactment of the Vietnam War. US leaders immediately echoed the old Lyndon Johnson refrains - there will be 'tragic' days ahead, we are being 'tested' in Iraq by foreign infiltrators, we must 'stay the course,' we dare not 'cut and run'. This is nonsense. The US will be leaving Iraq in disgrace sooner or later. The Iraqis are behaving just like the Vietnamese - and as any patriot (American, Australian, or Chinese) would - if invaded by self-righteous, hypocritical imperialists bent on stealing their resources. Why the British and Australians joined the Americans in this fiasco when they could so easily have stood for something other than 'might makes right' remains a mystery."

"Two years after September 11, America is unquestionably in greater danger of serious terrorist threats than it has ever been before. The Afghan and Iraq wars resulted in easy US "victories", but both soon re-erupted as guerilla struggles of attrition. Experience has shown that hi-tech armed forces are inappropriate, overly blunt instruments against terrorists and guerillas. What was called for was international police co-operation to hunt down the September 11 terrorists and changes in US foreign policy to separate militant activists from their passive supporters, whose grievances need to be addressed."