A dangerous thing to say

Condi's Surreal Visit to Iraq's Green Zone - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com

Again, the Americans don't seem to fully understand this. A Western intelligence expert who recently sat in on briefings by U.S. and Iraqi military officers in Baghdad described a disconnect between U.S. occupation authorities and Iraqi officials that was just as wide as what lies between the Green Zone and the rest of Iraq. The American officers, he said, spent an hour triumphantly describing how they had finally gotten the better of the insurgency while the Iraqis present doodled on their pads, their eyes glazing over.

That is a dangerous thing to say. I remember from my military history class about how our government touted all our successes against the VC and North Vietnam Army...before the Tet offensive. That effectively led our country to disbelieve just about anything the government ever said. And here we are again, saying how we're doing such a wonderful job against the insurgency in Iraq, when, in fact, "outside the Green Zone the sectarian violence is worsening--ensuring future dysfunction, if perhaps not outright civil war or breakup of the country."

If we Americans (and our so-called leaders) don't get a clue real quick, Iraq will truly be another Vietnam, win or lose. And the biggest losers will be the very people we tried so hard to liberate.