America’s finest reporter, Seymour Hersh, examines the future of the Iraq conflict and further Bush administration delusions. Hersh paints George Bush as a man led by religious conviction, removed from reality and ignoring the wishes of his military commanders:
“A key element of the drawdown plans, not mentioned in the President’s public statements, is that the departing American troops will be replaced by American airpower. Quick, deadly strikes by U.S. warplanes are seen as a way to improve dramatically the combat capability of even the weakest Iraqi combat units. The danger, military experts have told me, is that, while the number of American casualties would decrease as ground troops are withdrawn, the over-all level of violence and the number of Iraqi fatalities would increase unless there are stringent controls over who bombs what.”
Once again, America has learnt nothing from Vietnam. The insurgency will grow and the US will, in time, exit in defeat.