Lessons of Military History

Military officers screen the movie "The Battle of Algiers" before duty in Iraq. Apparently the moral of the story didn't sink in. I hope they are also required to read "Dereliction of Duty" by H.R. McMaster (NOT the book about Clinton). It is a "sobering, well-written account of how the Vietnam War was all but conceded in closed meetings by top officials in Washington, D.C. long before battles in the bush, skepticism in the press, or protest on college campuses. The clear and factual details that McMaster relays reinforces the tragedy of Vietnam, a war essentially without a clear purpose and orchestrated by political figures who sacrificed lives not so much in the name of national security, but political greed". Sound familar? From the Left Coaster: Interview with General Tony Zinni, former Commander of CentCom: "Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Hugh Shelton sent us the book Dereliction of Duty. He required all of us 17 four-star General Commanders to read the book". Back to Algiers: 50 years on, Algiers bomber sees US 'error' in Iraq 02 October 2006 ALGIERS: Fifty years ago a young blonde woman hid a bomb in Algiers' fashionable Milk Bar cafe where French colonial youths were relaxing after a day at the beach. The woman, Zohra Drif, knew there would be victims as she left, unnoticed thanks to her European looks, to take refuge in the Casbah old quarter minutes before the early evening blast. What she could not have known was that her actions and those of her colleagues in the 1954-62 independence war, instead of fading into history, are the subject of unprecedented scrutiny among counter-terror specialists around the world. The renewed interest is thanks to a decision by the US military in 2003 to screen the classic 1965 film about the war, The Battle of Algiers, for officers preparing for duty in Iraq. "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas," read a flyer for the film, a dramatized reconstruction of episodes in one of the world's bloodiest post-colonial wars. If the idea was to understand why people rebel against occupation, Drif now says, the Pentagon's move was a failure. Read More At Reuters