'Bush drew a parallel between the darkest days of Washington's leadership of insurgent colonial troops against Britain's imperial army to the current troubled US military effort in Iraq.' Bush invokes Washington's resolve in forging forward in Iraq

Apart from the obvious (both involved guns, and were difficult) are there any significant parallels between the invasion of Iraq and the War of Independence?

Well, many colonists believed the British had no right to impose their foreign presence by force of arms, and were prepared to use armed counterforce to drive them away.

Many Iraqis feel the same way, it seems. The trouble with a foreign army coming into your land to 'free' you from the oppressor is, notoriously, they won't go home.

The U.S. in Iraq is not a democratic government, but a military dictatorship which hopes to establish a 'puppet' government to replace their previous puppet, Hussein, who became, first, corrupt, and finally, an unruly embarrassment to his foreign masters, and needed to be replaced.

GWB could have picked a better metaphor.

In both instances, the occupying forces lost. In both instances, the losing side came in with too small of a military. In both cases, the losing side completely misunderstood the resolve of their opposition. In both cases, the losing side mismanaged the war from the start.

What bush doesn't understand is that the war in Iraq has created Founding Fathers in Iraq. Somewhere in Iraq right now, there is an Arab equivalent of George Washington, and he is very grateful for the opportunity that bush has given him.

So the analogy is appropriate, but now the way bush thinks it is. bush will be seen by history as another George I, albeit with a slightly better command of the English language.



(OK, OK, I should be accurate about this. I admit to being wrong, but just a bit. The British really weren't an occupying force, unless you take the viewpoint of the Native Americans.)

And in both cases the losing side, in an attempt to explain failure, blamed another country for interfering and helping the enemy rebels militarily. It was Iran France in the C18.

The Iraqi George Washington is likely to be Muqtada al- Sadr, he of the Mehdi Army.

"...blamed another country for interfering and helping the enemy rebels militarily."

I thought it was the Democrats that interfered and helped the enemy rebels.