It's official now. We are in a Viet Nam-style guerrila war. The number of American troops who have died in Iraq matched the Persian Gulf War today. And the military plans to have troops stay for a year's tour of duty.

Got any boys close to draft age in the next few years?



Top U.S. General in Iraq Sees 'Classical Guerrilla-Type' War
By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON, July 16 A top United States general said today that American troops in Iraq were now facing a "classical guerrilla-type campaign”, the sort of phrase Bush administration officials have so far avoided, and he added that American troops should be prepared for duty tours of perhaps a year.

The blunt assessment by Gen. John Abizaid of the Army, who has responsibility for all military operations in Iraq, came shortly after the NATO secretary general made it clear that the military alliance had no interest in expanding its own limited role in Iraq.

General Abizaid, who recently succeeded Gen. Tommy R. Franks atop the United States Central Command, said that military planners were working to bring home some units quickly, including the Army's Third Infantry Division. But with parts of Iraq still highly unstable, yearlong deployments are possible, General Abizaid told reporters at the Pentagon.

His reference to guerrilla-style tactics, with its resonance of the messy, protracted and unpopular American involvement in Vietnam, was the sort of language the Bush administration has not used thus far...








---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------