A "grunt" weighs in on the war in Iraq.

07-08-2003
Bring What On?

By David H. Hackworth

On May 1, George W. Bush landed in a military jet on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln with all the pomp and ceremony of Caesar returning to Rome after conquering Gaul . In the background – as our commander in chief proclaimed "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" – was a huge banner reading “ MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,” probably conjured up by White House flacks.

There was just one problem: No one told the guerrilla enemy the war was over.

Since the president played Top Gun, hundreds of our troops have been killed or wounded, and dozens of major combat operations have been launched or are ongoing all over that unfortunate country.

A lesson presidents JFK, LBJ and RMN learned the hard way was not to jive the people when they found themselves stuck in the Vietnam quagmire – because all the double talk in the world won't disappear the truth of the casualty lists.

But we’re still not getting much straight talk about what’s really going down in Iraq , especially from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who recently announced that we weren’t facing a guerrilla war there.

Hello?!

Whatever Rummy wants to call it, we’re still stuck in a classic Phase I Guerrilla War (G-War)...





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