RE: Thick fog around Baghdad

["Elisha Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The US may lose entire divisions.

I'm afraid revolutionary optimism may be giving way to wishful thinking.
The Iraqi army MAY be setting a trap for the US forces, or they may simply
be retreating. But the likelihood that any "trap" is going to result in the
loss
of entire US divisions is, I would think, nil. The physical relationship of
forces (quality and quantity of weaponry, air support) simply preclude that
possibility.

The only way the Iraqi forces can "win" this war is if the political price
that the US is forced to pay for slaughtering civilians becomes too high.
And, while still possible, all indications are that the potential brutality
of
US imperialism in this situation is more or less unlimited (unlike the UK,
who still seem to believe in that old Marquess of Queensbury; at least
they give that impression in comparison to the Yanks).

And can the US "win" the occupation if they do win the war? Well, Israel
not only hasn't been forced out of Palestine yet, they're plunging in
deeper every day. And they're mostly paying the price in lives of their
own civilians. The US will only have to pay a price in expendable "grunts."
I don't want to be pessimistic, I'm only trying to reinforce the statement
above - militarily, the US can win the war AND the occupation. It is only
politically, confronting the kind of pressure that the worldwide antiwar
movement can put forth (aided by the Iraqi resistance just as they were
by the Vietnamese resistance) that there is any chance at all that they will
lose either the war or the occupation.


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