pinions of buddy don: city of rubble to win harts n minds?

sumtimes whenever i watch whuts a'goin on over in iraq, it puts me in mind of vietnam, lack it duz mos everbidy who wuz alive fer that lil add ventchur. in that conflick, witch as ye mite member wuz to keep all them communist dominoes frum droppin cuntry by cuntry till we wuz forced to be communists our ownself, we wuz fitin folks who wuz willin to put bombs in baby carridges, as grisly a violayshun of life as ye kin magine. wurser than that, it wurked to whar we retaliated till thay wuz atrocities on bof sides, mos famus one bein that my lai massacre. thang is, ye caint have a war without atrocities. deespite whut the reveredn pat robertson claims mr bush sed, ye caint have no war without casualties neethur. thems plane facks n theys part of the reason sum folks are agin all war.

back in them vietnam days, our side wuz countin the dead on thar side, sumthin i reckun we larnt not to do no more. ye wood git them body counts ever evenin on the news. day after day, ye wood be greeted with them numbers: 13 u.s. dead on our side, 40 south vietnam dead on our side, 3,000 communist dead on tharn, that kinda thang, nite after nite after nite. corse, thay wuz that famus statement on the news that they made almos ever fridy evenin: 'American casualties were described as light.' i member thankin twuz a miracull how them communists could keep cummin up with new fiters when we wuz a'killin em off in such numbers. dint matter how minny wuz reported killt of a evenin, thay wuz always plenty more to be killt the nex day.

as ye mite magine, the frustrayshun with that war wuz grate. how kin ye win a war ifn killin the enemy dont make em back down? how kin ye win a war ifn ever time ye kill one of tharn, several otherns gits inspired to join up with thar side? it cum to the point whar folks wuz saying thangs lack, 'We had to destroy the village to save it' n one of my favert lines of all time, lease fer showin how absurd war kin be, 'We have to kill those people; they have no respect for human life.'

lack innybidy mite, i keep prayin that we kin figger a way that this war kin be differnt, but i aint too optimistick about it, even ifn thats whut yer spozed to be. my reason has to do with whut we jes witnessd in falluja n the res of the cuntry:

1. we figger out whar the insurgents has thar hedquarters, in falluja
2. we announce to the world how we're a'goin in to clean em out
3. since they dont whar uniforms or fite accordin to the rules of law (reminds me of the overmountain men a'fitin the english all dressed in thar red n marchin in strate rows at the battle of kings moutain in our own revolushuairy war), taint no big trick fer em to disappear befor we even git thar
4. they seem to bleev thar cause is wurth dyin fer, so minny of them that stays to fite wonts to fite to the death
5. we destroy falluja n deeclare we have it 100% under our cuntrol of the rubble thats lef over
6. but sumhow, thays plenty more insurgents reddy to attack us in uther places.
7. we make plans to shift forces n git reddy to doot all agin

in such a war, ye kin take all the territory ye wont. ye kin knock down bildins n mosques n hospitulls. ye kin kill ten of them fer ever one of ourn they kills. ye kin go whar ye wont n kill as minny as ye gut the stumach to kill. but ifn ye caint change the harts n minds of the folks yer trine to give demockrussy, the furst time ye let em vote, ifn tiz a fair vote, thar a'gone vote ye out.

i gut on this train of thought this mornin as i wuz readin the frunt page articull in the new york times name of Rebels Attack in Central Iraq and the North. it splains how the fitin has spread out in sevrul direckshuns, addin mosul, baquba, kirkuk, n suwaira to the lis of trouble spots whar insurgents take over po-leece stayshuns n execute sum of the iraqi po-leece. all that is real scary stuff.

thays also that articull bout the marine who shot dead the wounded man who wuz lef behind by a earlier group of marines that had dun cum thru. i caint judge the man fer whut he dun: thats fer god to do. but i half to add mitt i could see myself gittin so riled n frustrated by the situwayshun that i mite do the same kinda thang. that dont make it rite by no stretch, but tiz true.

but all them thangs dont scare me much. whut scares me is sumthin that cum at the verr end of the new york times articull bout the insurgentsy spreddin. tiz a note bout sum children playin, after thangs had dun calmed down in mosul. is we winnin harts n minds? here's the quote:

Other clashes erupted around Mosul. A bomb exploded beneath a police car at the Zahoor police station, one of the stations looted and burned by rebels on Thursday.

But the violence had calmed since then, and children could be seen playing in some parks.

At one playground, Amin Muhammad, 10, and his friends raced around with plastic guns. "We divide ourselves into two teams,'' he said, "the mujahedeen versus the American forces.''

And in their battles, he said, the mujahedeen always win.

when them kids gits to playin cops n robbers or cowboys n injuns, ye kin tell whos winnin thar harts n minds by witch side they take.