03-03-2003, 08:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-03-2003, 08:56 PM by Occhidiangela.)
What's in a name? A rose by any other name still has thorns. Was it the Civil War, or the War of Yankee Aggression, or the War Between the States? Was in the Seven Year's War, or the French and Indian war, part IV. Was it World War II, or was it The Great Patriotic War? Was it really Queen Annes' War, and why did they go to war over Jenkin's ear. In a word, who you are determines what you call a war.
Modern Iraq arose from the interaction of the post Imperial changes of WW I, aka the War to End All WArs, and how lines are drawn on a map.
Iraq's movement to establish an Arab Hegemony in the Persian Gulf region, a hegemony that would put all Arabs under its influence, has to my mind been crystalized by the fact that Egypt took themselves out of the old UAR and "We Lead The Arab World" by two major events: The 1973 disaster of th Yom Kippur War, and the Camp David accords wherein Egypt was bought off by Pres Carter. That war also crystalized the OPEC and "Oil as an economic weapon" framework that drives the importance of the region to this day.
Iraqi expansionism was triggered by both a bit of a power vacuum with Egypt out to lunch, and a perceived opportunity versus Iran, 1979-80. That effort got Iraq into such debt, it went a conquering again in 1990. As I see it, they are the same war continued in a different direction. Gulf War III, should it come, is basically the third chapter in the trilogy that Tolkein wrote about . . . sorry, got lost there.
ON second thought, maybe it is all the same war, and it is just new chapters of the same book, or Saturday morning radio serial.
Gulf War: Chapter I- Iran, the First Rebuff
Gulf War: Chapter II- Kuwait, aka the Wrath of Bush
Gulf War: Chapter III- The Return of the UN? No. THe Return of the Bush? No, different Bush. How about . . .
Gulf War: Chapter III Allah's Well That Ends . . . Well . . .
Hmmm, I like that title.
'In war, the outcome is never final.' ==Clausewitz==
World War I and World War II were to a certain extent the same war with different tools, at least on the Eurpean side, fought twice for similar reasons.
Modern Iraq arose from the interaction of the post Imperial changes of WW I, aka the War to End All WArs, and how lines are drawn on a map.
Iraq's movement to establish an Arab Hegemony in the Persian Gulf region, a hegemony that would put all Arabs under its influence, has to my mind been crystalized by the fact that Egypt took themselves out of the old UAR and "We Lead The Arab World" by two major events: The 1973 disaster of th Yom Kippur War, and the Camp David accords wherein Egypt was bought off by Pres Carter. That war also crystalized the OPEC and "Oil as an economic weapon" framework that drives the importance of the region to this day.
Iraqi expansionism was triggered by both a bit of a power vacuum with Egypt out to lunch, and a perceived opportunity versus Iran, 1979-80. That effort got Iraq into such debt, it went a conquering again in 1990. As I see it, they are the same war continued in a different direction. Gulf War III, should it come, is basically the third chapter in the trilogy that Tolkein wrote about . . . sorry, got lost there.
ON second thought, maybe it is all the same war, and it is just new chapters of the same book, or Saturday morning radio serial.
Gulf War: Chapter I- Iran, the First Rebuff
Gulf War: Chapter II- Kuwait, aka the Wrath of Bush
Gulf War: Chapter III- The Return of the UN? No. THe Return of the Bush? No, different Bush. How about . . .
Gulf War: Chapter III Allah's Well That Ends . . . Well . . .
Hmmm, I like that title.
'In war, the outcome is never final.' ==Clausewitz==
World War I and World War II were to a certain extent the same war with different tools, at least on the Eurpean side, fought twice for similar reasons.
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete