It's 1916, Again

[SoDesuKa]

Trench warfare in World War I saw armies going over the top to re-take territory they'd given up only a month earlier. A short time later, the Germans would do the same thing.

In Iraq, we're seeing a return to a similar style of fighting as World War I. We abandon places like Najaf and Fallujah, and a short time later we take them back.

Morale suffers when our troops see how expendable their lives really are. Our soldiers are starting to pick and choose which orders they'll obey and which they'll refuse. We'll never win a war this way!

[whistle]

1. And the troops keep getting sent back until they are killed or so...

...seriously wounded that they can't fight anymore. Yep, a lot of similarities. Didn't Iraq and Iran get into a stalemate war in the 1980's? That's when the U.S. gave Saddam WMDs to break out of the stalemate with all the tragic consequences that lead up to the invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War.

[Randi_Listener]

2. Not exactly

I think those 2 motherfuckers just ran out of bullets in 1988 and ended the war.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Yeah. Iran/Iraq. A million on the lines on either side. And we have

135,000?

War on the cheap ain't cheap.

[ladybugg33]

3. The "left behind children" won't know what is meant by 1916.

Maybe you could explain a little?

[anarchy1999]

5. World War I, go to google and look it up, then read lots.

Look up Lawrence of Arabia, that should probably give you more insight to the current state of affairs in the Mid-East than you would ever like to know.

Really short version, Lawrence was a British soldier that made alliances with the Arabs to fight the Turks, in return there would be a PanArab state in the end. He was double crossed, lied to by his superiors and at the end of World War I, much to his disternation and to Woodrow Wilson's the powers that be carved up the Mid-East and broke every promise that had been given. Much like treaties with Native Americans in the US. The French got a piece, the British got Iraq, the US got a piece and so on and so forth.

Google Britain and 1920 in Iraq. Google Robert Fisk, journalist from Great Britain, writing and reporting from the Mid-East for 30 years.

This area of the world has a history far, far richer than ours.