Dan Rather Commentary

[jaguar]

Pity, if your head was not so far up your ass you might have noticed the slightly more subtle message in there. There are few similarities between Vietnam and a possible war on Iraq, a few, but not many. On the other hand the similarities between Chechnya and Afghanistan are growing by the day - large, high tech occuping force doggy by small band of diehard motherfuckers with a death wish using techniques like remote mines and hit and run rocket attacks to attempt to wear down a far larger and better armed force. The paralelles are amazing, and the curious thing is the way in which the Afghanis are adopting exactly the same tactics as the Chechens, i doubt that is a coincidence.

In the same way Afghanistan is a mass of feuding warloads and ravaliries which often explode in bloodshed, Iraq is similar. The diference been a powerful central government stamping out dissidence with an iron fist. Remove the government and replace with a US mission similar to the 'nation building' operation in afghanistan and you'll end up with a similar situation.

There are differences on many levels, but attempts to turn Iraq into a client state will not be without many problems.