Fionn - 28 Jul 03 - 04:40 PM

"Even the White House seems to have abandoned that hilarious objective of "winning hearts and minds."

If they have, and I don't believe for a minute that that is indeed the case - Then they definitely are on a hiding to nothing - they will be repeating the disasterous mistakes that led to them totally losing the plot in Vietnam.

As for

"I don't suppose the irony will have been lost on you, Ard, of US troops getting training from the Brits in how to be an occupying force!"

Irony? - don't think so - the track record of UK forces in precisely this role has been fairly effective. Malaya, Borneo and Northern Ireland. And before you jump in with any comments regarding the latter - I have a question for you - How many members of whatever paramilitary group have actually saved lives in Northern Ireland? (Note I do not count bombers who have managed to blow themselves up, either in making their bombs, or, in transporting those bombs to their designated targets.

Both Malaya and Borneo, were both conflicts that ran at the same time as the US were involved in Vietnam. It was in Malaya that the phrase "Hearts and Minds" was coined. Malaya and Borneo are the only two examples where communisted backed and inspired insurrections were defeated, mainly due to the adoption of the "Hearts and Minds" philosophy - major military power involved - The Brits.

Does it work? - Number of British casualties in Iraq since May? Number of incidents of attacks on UK forces?

Taking the whole picture into account the number of incidents are minute, and it must be remembered that the US forces are operating in the harder areas, they are largely peaceful - as I have previously said, the success stories are not reported.