Kissinger is an evil bastard but he understands guerrilla warfare

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18397

<snip>Will this kind of barbarism "work"? Will it "pacify" Iraq and if so, at what cost? For once, it is worth listening to Henry Kissinger, who said of the Vietnam War: "We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one. We sought physical attrition; our opponents aimed for our psychological exhaustion. In the process, we lost sight of one of the cardinal maxims of guerrilla warfare: The guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win."

[skooooo]

1. Henry's definitely got the brains...

...too bad he couldn't have used them better.

[RafterMan]

2. "We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one"

This is the exact point Wes Clark was making with Blitzer the other day. It's the only significant point in the Iraq = Vietnam analogy.

Hopefully, Kissenger has the clout to make the Republicans see it before it's too late.

[fishnfla]

10. this was the overriding lesson of viet nam

a bright shining lie

another bull shit lie today

[No2W2004]

3. What makes you think

that Kissin....oops, Fucking Kissinger isn't involved now...
Bremer is one of his toadies.

[Unknown Known]

4. Henry has been playing political guerrilla warfare for 40+ years!

He should know:evilgrin:

[General Discontent]

5. Well....You are only half right.......

n/t


DWolfman

[krkaufman]

6. * * * DO NOT ENTER * * *

Kissinger is a supremely evil bastard and war criminal; anything he says cannot be taken at face value.

We lost as soon as we stepped foot in Iraq; there was never an exit strategy possible -- only a DO NOT ENTER strategy.

Remember... "The only winning move is not to play."

just one man's opinion...

-----
p.s. And the same went for Vietnam. We were NOT in Vietnam to save the South; the people of the South didn't want us there. We invaded Vietnam because the government of South Vietnam was corrupt and was losing the support of its people. We tried preventing the failure of the government through military force, because our misguided "Domino Theory" deemed it necessary.

[blurp]

7. It's all about balance

It can't all be peace and love all the time.

Sometimes we need the Kissingers.

All things in moderation, of course.

[krkaufman]

11. Beg to differ

We *never* need "the Kissengers."

I'll take the Wes Clarks, Winston Churchills, Richard Holbrookes, Madeline Albrights, ...

But I'll do without the war criminals, if that's OK.

[the Kelly Gang]

8. I'd prefer to see Kissinger explain more at a war crimes trial.

[fishnfla]

9. politics vs military

the politicians will fuck it up, every time

proof is in the pudding right now, shrub sent troops into a foreign policy failure

[maggrwaggr]

12. and in this case, what's "winning"? Nobody's told us

Nobody knows what "winning" in Iraq means.

There is no way to win. In a very real sense, it's already over, but every day we stay there and more Americans get killed, and we kill more Iraqis, we lose even more.

The only thing we can do at this point is to pull out, admit it was a mistake, and pay the tab.

[bemildred]

13. Henry is a lying POS.

The VietNam war was 100% political, as are all wars.

[ConsAreLiars]

14. Kissinger is a bloody criminal and a fool.

He extended the Vietnam War into the north of the country trying to "win" by using overwhelming brute force against a liberation movement, and into Laos, and by implementing a coup against Sihanouk set in motion the events that led to the killing fields of Cambodia (Kampuchea). And so on. His vile acts are endless, and his body count is second only to Hitler and Stalin.

As for the maxim "we" (HE and his cohorts) lost sight of, it's a nice little phrase but it means nothing. Pure pablum that sells well to the power brokers he serves, but it shows he knows nothing of guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare is the consequence of injustice; it is not the result of a poor choice of tactics by imperial powers, no matter what the sycophants claim.