We hear little about the hearts and minds of the people, and so much about the attacks, which is so heavily supported by both outside parties and the remnants of Saddam’s war machine that the “insurgents” have possibly the best logistical base of any guerilla group. There’s been data that support both sides of the argument about whether we’re winning the hearts and minds of the general Iraqi citizen.

As far as unfair, you would have to assume other groups aren’t watching our actions trying to learn how to turn what works in Iraq against us. That includes radical Christians in this country, communists, other groups with an axe to grind, etc. Failure here won’t be like Vietnam where we got a decade breathing room.

The US isn’t fighting what’s left of Iraq’s military. It’s fighting people both within and without Iraq who want to fight Americans.

The United States is sort of in the position that England was in during the American Revolution; superior military prepared for conventional war pitted against a foe experienced in guerrilla tactics who knows the lay of the land (the colonists learned these techniques well from the natives, even as Her Majesty’s soldiers refused to listen to them).

You avoid guerrilla warfare if you win the hearts and minds of the people of the area. The United States has failed to do that, contrary to Bush’s rhetoric.

Considering how much we’d beaten up on Iraq’s military over the past two decades, if we’re getting our asses kicked now, how can we possibly expect any better when we’re forced to go back in a few years, or when Iran gets the bomb?

If we can’t hold a country like Iraq, this world is farked.

“OK, we got our asses kicked in Iraq– but don’t look at that, look over here where we’ve just destroyed several square miles of Africa! We’re winning the war on terror, I tell you, winning!”

It so totally wouldn’t surprise me if they refused to admit that anything was wrong. And who would want to take responsibility for something so broken, despite their endorsement of it?

It’s like a child who hit a baseball through a window, and just tried to quietly whistle as he sneaks away from the scene. Except the window is our economy, the baseball is the Army, and the child is Bush.