Must See TV

And I don't mean Debra Messing--I just spent the last twenty minutes or so watching this streaming media entitled Falluja-The Day After. Short version: the video, shot after the US offensive but before residents were allowed to return, can be summed up as "shattered people, shattered buildings."

This, by US military standards, is "victory." This explains why we've lost in Iraq.

Last week, while I took a break from the internets, I read a book about a region of Louisiana known as the Florida Parishes (East Baton Rouge, where I live, is the westernmost Florida Parish). The book was a comprehensive history, but of course substantial sections were devoted to the Civil War and immediate aftermath. And, one thing that the author noted over and over was heavy-handed tactics by the (outsider) Federal Army...which, while being "successful" in a military sense, alienated the local people to such an extent that they embraced even more tightly the Confederate cause, which resulted in additional violence, and so on--a downward spiral.

Too bad the military apparently hasn't taken such experiences to heart...