Vietnam Redux?
I have to let you know that I have been reading Marilyn Young's stunning, and depressing account of the vietnam wars beginning with the withdrawal of the French after dien-bien phu. That the US foreignpolicy establishment never could admit that the US forces were the problem there is so appalling, and defines the last half of the twentieth century. While others default to the old foreign policy excuse for whatever you want to do, "realism" Robert Dean, in his masterful "Imperial Brotherhood" explains it as misplaced masculinity. Nevertheless, I have been waiting and waiting for our current military leaders to wake up and realize that when the iraqui militants say that US forces are the probelm, they mean it. But more important, the old vietnam military methods of securing a town, destroying a village to save it, seem to be back in play. The surprising thing, is that only the LA Times has this story.
U.S. Generals Now See Virtues of a Smaller Troop Presence in Iraq - Los Angeles Times: "WASHINGTON � The U.S. generals running the war in Iraq presented a new assessment of the military situation in public comments and sworn testimony this week: The 149,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq are increasingly part of the problem."
During a trip to Washington, the generals said the presence of U.S. forces was fueling the insurgency, fostering an undesirable dependency on American troops among the nascent Iraqi armed forces and energizing terrorists across the Middle East.
For all these reasons, they said, a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops was imperative.

American officials backtracked on their expectations of what the U.S. military can achieve in Iraq months ago. But this week's comments showed that commanders believe a large U.S. force in Iraq might in fact be creating problems as well as solutions.

"This has been hinted at before, but it's a big shift for them to be saying that publicly," said Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution in Washington. "It means they recognize that there is a cost to staying just as there is a benefit to staying. And this has not really been factored in as a central part of the strategy before."