Run to the hills

Martin van Creveld is a professor of military history at the Hebrew University and is the only non-American author on the U.S. Army's required reading list for officers. His article in the current edition of the Jewish newspaper, The Forward, is a stinging rebuke of the Iraq war and explains his ideal course of action:

"The number of American casualties in Iraq is now well more than 2,000, and there is no end in sight. Some two-thirds of Americans, according to the polls, believe the war to have been a mistake. And congressional elections are just around the corner.

"What had to come, has come. The question is no longer if American forces will be withdrawn, but how soon - and at what cost. In this respect, as in so many others, the obvious parallel to Iraq is Vietnam.

"...Simply abandoning equipment or handing it over to the Iraqis, as was done in Vietnam, is simply not an option. And even if it were, the new Iraqi army is by all accounts much weaker, less skilled, less cohesive and less loyal to its government than even the South Vietnamese army was. For all intents and purposes, Washington might just as well hand over its weapons directly to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"Clearly, then, the thing to do is to forget about face-saving and conduct a classic withdrawal.

"Tehran is certain to emerge as the biggest winner from the war - a winner that in the not too distant future is likely to add nuclear warheads to the missiles it already has.

"For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins."

When a man like van Creveld calls for impeachment, be rest assured that Bush and his cronies are worried.