Can America Win the War in Iraq?

The Washington Post reported yesterday that most Americans now believe we are losing the war in Iraq. Here is a question for you: Did German forces who fought on both sides of the American Revolutionary War lose or win that war? And if you don't like that one, did France lose or win the American Revolutionary War?

Okay, all analogies are ultimately false. Most people are referring now to Vietnam, and that is indeed the war we have to compare the Iraq War with. We couldn't win that war because winning it depended completely on the Vietnamese. It didn't matter what we did. The idea was that either the South won their right to continue to exist or that they did not. We couldn't win that victory for them.

The administration wants us to focus on Japan, Germany, and Korea. But in those countries, after the combat ended, a people existed who wanted to exist as a nation state, live in peace, and develop their economies. The majority of people in Vietnam wanted that too. They just didn't care whether the government was capitalistic or communistic.

None of these factors exist in Iraq. There people would rather kill one another than make compromises in order to exist as functional families creating a viable society. There is no sense of being a nation in a place that was created by western countries to benefit westerners.

So we entered this war under false pretenses, and we continue to fight in this place under false pretenses. And we set for ourselves a goal equivelent to trying to score a touchdown while playing basketball.


The Problem with Education in America:

Somewhere along the line, usually thought to be in the mid 1970s, we decided that children were clay to be molded by others. This represented a major change in attitudes. Prior to this time, we expected children to learn, and recognized that children had limitations. Now we assume that all children can be molded into some preconceived forms that suit societal needs.