Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Lane Hall-Witt]

The military, political, diplomatic, and legal problem for the U.S. this time around is that the Iraqis are staging in the neighborhoods of Baghdad. There were two primary theaters in the Gulf War: the desert between Kuwait and Baghdad, where the Iraqi forces were caught in the open like sitting ducks; and select strategic targets in and around Baghdad, where Iraqi military facilities, industrial resources, and supply depots were relatively distinguished from civilian centers. Now, though, we're going to confront an enemy that, by comparison, has done much more to dig in among its women, children, and elderly.

Will American civilians and the international community be willing to watch Iraqi civilians die in a push-button war on the neighborhoods of Baghdad? What would this do to the prospects for American nation-building in Iraq after Saddam?

On the other hand, will the U.S. set aside the bulk of its technological advantages in order to engage in the kind of street fighting, like Israel in Jenin, that could save Iraqi civilian lives?

I don't intend for this to be a contribution to a "political" debate either for or against a war, but just to say that this is likely to be a much more complicated struggle than the Gulf War was. Iraq can flunk War 101 once again and still put the U.S. in a wretched position by forcing us to win a barbaric victory.