Sunday, October 24, 2004

BarlowFriendz: Exit Strategies

In "Exit Strategies" John Perry Barlow talks to a man in charge of some security contractors in Iraq, and they discuss the situation there. Eventually the talk turns to a couple of interesting exit strategies.
  • Put Saddam back in power (under close supervision) to bring the country back under control.
  • Separate the Kurds from the rest of the country and go hang out with them.
I found these hypothetical solutions to be the most interesting part of the article, but there's a lot of other interesting stuff in there.
Finally he pointed out that history provides a gloomy prognosis. "I can't think of a single case where a popular local guerrilla movement failed to defeat a conventional foreign occupying force," he said. "From the American Revolution through Viet Nam, the guerrillas always win. Usually, it takes them a long time and they suffer most of the casualties, but they win."

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