Why Foreign Occupation is a Losing Strategy

Maybe because I spent four years in college during a shooting war that directly affected me, I learned about national liberation, the advantage and power of fighting for your home on your own soil and American diplomatic history. By the time I graduated, I knew that the US would never prevail in Vietnam. Witnessing first hand Vietnamese opposition to American occupation further strengthened that conclusion. Proof came in 1975. That lesson is pretty much seared into my brain.

Which is why I am so enraged at the war and occupation of Iraq. The current fiasco was more than easy to predict. That's why so many of us said predicted it.

For those who have not yet fully grasped this terrible lesson, I recommend Juan Cole's history of nationalist insurgencies that defeated superior western military forces.