I think you would appreciate Cambodia: A Book For People Who Find Television too Slow and Public Eye: An Investigation Into the Disappearance of the World by Brian Fawcett. Sorry about the shity wiki link but it is late and I am tired. I am sure Google can lead you to more info or drop me an e-mail and I will get back to you tomorrow.

The problem with Bush comparing the fiasco of Operation Together Forward to the 1968 Tet offensive, is that, once again, he shows what a shallow, silly grasp of history he has. Tet was an uprising across a whole country, designed to show that the Viet Cong could attack the superior U.S. military anywhere, anytime they chose (and ARVN units actually fought Viet Cong effectively). Tet was militarily expensive for the Viet Cong, and generally regarded as a military stand off or even a defeat for them, as they lost tens of thousands of troops without gaining permanent control of any new territory.

In Operation Together Forward, the U.S. is learning that the Iraqi insurgency will come to a pitched battle declared in advance by the U.S. in Baghdad, and fight effectively. The level of violence shows no sign of abating, and so far as we can see now, the Iraqi insurgency is able to keep up or broaden this fight indefinitely, judged by the growing number of incidents and the increasing amounts of weapons and explosives caches being discovered throughout the country. And worse, the Iraqi army is showing repeatedly that it not only is not ready to "stand up," but that it is ineffective when called upon to fight [PDF file linked - September 2006 GAO Report to Congress]. Moreover, in key metrics established by the American Army as recently as May 2006, we are failing in our training mission for Iraqi forces miserably, since we have only 1 Iraqi unit that we rate as being ready for independent operation, against a goal, set in May 2006, of 18 such units at this date.

During Tet, the U.S. Army and its allies were surprised, but prevailed. During Operation Together Forward, we are learning we have no allies in Iraq, and we are getting our butts kicked, at the daily cost of dozens of Iraqi civilian lives daily in Baghdad alone, not to mention those of our own troops. October is on track to become the bloodiest month of the war for American troops, in both deaths and wounded. But worse, in this fight, unlike in 1968's Tet, we have a volunteer Army, and continued losses in the Iraqi operation will clearly impact recruitment, and eventually, our ability to meet our goals in Afghanistan and other areas of the world, as well. Not for nothing has British General Sir Richard Dannatt recently called for British troops to leave Iraq, citing the real damage to the overall strength of their volunteer force, in the face of a continuing and increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.

"Dannatt said British troops were targets in some places, but were beneficial in others, and insisted he was not proposing an immediate withdrawal. "I'm a soldier. We don't do surrender ... We're going to see this through," he said.

But he added: "I've got an army to look after which is going to be successful in current operations. But I want an army in five years time and 10 years time. Don't let's break it on this one. Lets keep an eye on time."

In making his comparison of Baghdad to Tet, Bush has unconsciously once again gilded his Iraqi lily, and the sad thing is, he's reached back into history for America's Dien Bien Phu to do so. What a freakin' idiot this piss ant Texas excuse for a President is.

Sorry to bunnies for the rant. This really isn't MeCha fodder, I know.

I don't have much to add, but that was a great post, pie.

pie, nice post.

However: The Short Timers by the wacked out Gustav Hasford was the basis for Full Metal Jacket. I point this out because Hasford should be better known and the book should be required reading.

Hasford was a major library book thief, too, which just adds to his weird story. A deeply troubled man.