Iraq: Botched vs Doomed?

More evidence for botched: apparently a significant number of high-level decision makers don't know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite.

"Therefore I say: 'Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.
When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.
If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.'"

Sun Tzu, Art of War.


"Such people are called 'mad bandits'. What can they expect if not defeat?"


Li Ch'üan, commentary on Art of War.

2 comments:

CurrentConductor said...

Wow. That article is really, really depressing.

Mind you, I didn't know the difference either, but I'm not deciding policy and tactics.

Anonymous said...

WOW! It is sweet that you quoted Sun Tzu on this story. And it is so true, now that the Bush administration is being forced to admit that their Iraq strategy is a complete failure.

Now the real question is, how can the Bush administration get out of Iraq, when they still don't know thyself or thy enemy they are currently fighting?