Chohong Choi: Bush, Saddam & Rommel ... Some Parallels
[Chohong Choi has lived in Hong Kong and New York, and can be reached at: a9591321@graduate.hku.hk.
]
“And don't forget that we can't pull out of Iraq now because it would dishonor the troops who haven't died yet.”
-- William Blum
Remember the famous saying, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it”? “Nonsense,” countered one of my history professors in one of my undergraduate courses. “Those who read up on history are still doomed to repeat it!” He must have foretold the actions of the current Bush Administration. Someone in it (probably not Bush himself) must have read up on history, but the ones who call the shots seemed to have conveniently picked out which parts they wanted to remember, and which to forget.
Desert Storm in 1991 was one part they wanted to remember. It was supposed to have laid the ghosts of Vietnam to rest. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was the last major commitment of the US Military and the last war that could be deemed even half a success. But another of my history professors disparaged it as “not a war, but an excursion,” and that was what Bush and his gang intended for their own Iraq war to be, and even go one better than their Desert Storm predecessors by finishing the job of deposing Saddam Hussein. This happened, and Saddam was left to swing (and tragically led a few kids to copy him). But this Iraq war has become more of an air ball than a slam-dunk. Yet, the White House plans to increase troop levels in Iraq by over 20,000. This is evidence of its failure to learn from the lessons presented by an even earlier war that took place in the Middle Eastern Desert.
During World War II, the Axis and Allies fought over North Africa from 1940-1943. The war there grew out of an ambitious desire by Italy to build a new Roman Empire to rival the one its fellow Axis power, Germany, was carving out in Europe. But the Italians were unprepared for a modern war and were soundly beaten by British and Commonwealth forces, losing most of the African colonies they already had in the process. Compelled to save his friend, Mussolini, from embarrassment, Hitler diverted resources -- namely a two-division unit called the Deutsches Afrika Korps under a general named Erwin Rommel -- to North Africa to take on the Allies.
With German assistance, the Axis began to beat back the Allies. But the purpose of Germany’s participation in the North African campaign was not simply to save Italy’s skin. World War II was the first major war for oil, and Hitler had his eye on the plentiful supply of it located in the Middle East and the Caucasus Mountains. The Germans would attempt to seize the Caucasus during their invasion of the Soviet Union with a further possibility of breaking through to Iraq and Iran, where they would link up with Rommel’s forces. Had they succeeded, they would have had access to all the oil they needed for their war. (The petroleum gods did not smile on the Axis, refusing to tell them about the large deposits of oil sitting underneath Italian-controlled Libya, which were not discovered until years after the war.)
Early in the war, both Iraq and Iran were pro-German. Although officially independent, they were under heavy British influence due to the presence of British military bases in the former and British control of the oil industry in both places. (Sound familiar?) In 1941, Britain invaded Iraq to install a pro-Allied government, and she cooperated with the Soviet Union to do the same to Iran later that year. That made the Middle East an Allied domain. [1] If the Axis wanted the oil here, they would have to fight their way through North Africa to get it, and that was what Rommel was on the verge of doing, despite being allotted inadequate resources. By Summer 1942, he was poised to break through to the Suez Canal and the oilfields beyond it. But his poor supply situation then manifested itself when the well-supplied British under their new commander, General Bernard Montgomery, counterattacked and forced him to retreat west, where another Allied force would land that fall to trap him. Rommel knew the game was up, and pleaded with Hitler to evacuate all Axis forces from North Africa so that they could fight another day (in other words, “cut and run”). Hitler was adamantly opposed to this idea, saying that, “North Africa, being the approach to Europe, must be held at all costs.” [2] (That is, we have to fight them there so we will not have to fight them at home.) Then he began to rush troops and materiel to the region (his own version of the “surge”).
It was a matter of too little, too late....
Read entire article at Dissident Voice
]
“And don't forget that we can't pull out of Iraq now because it would dishonor the troops who haven't died yet.”
-- William Blum
Remember the famous saying, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it”? “Nonsense,” countered one of my history professors in one of my undergraduate courses. “Those who read up on history are still doomed to repeat it!” He must have foretold the actions of the current Bush Administration. Someone in it (probably not Bush himself) must have read up on history, but the ones who call the shots seemed to have conveniently picked out which parts they wanted to remember, and which to forget.
Desert Storm in 1991 was one part they wanted to remember. It was supposed to have laid the ghosts of Vietnam to rest. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was the last major commitment of the US Military and the last war that could be deemed even half a success. But another of my history professors disparaged it as “not a war, but an excursion,” and that was what Bush and his gang intended for their own Iraq war to be, and even go one better than their Desert Storm predecessors by finishing the job of deposing Saddam Hussein. This happened, and Saddam was left to swing (and tragically led a few kids to copy him). But this Iraq war has become more of an air ball than a slam-dunk. Yet, the White House plans to increase troop levels in Iraq by over 20,000. This is evidence of its failure to learn from the lessons presented by an even earlier war that took place in the Middle Eastern Desert.
During World War II, the Axis and Allies fought over North Africa from 1940-1943. The war there grew out of an ambitious desire by Italy to build a new Roman Empire to rival the one its fellow Axis power, Germany, was carving out in Europe. But the Italians were unprepared for a modern war and were soundly beaten by British and Commonwealth forces, losing most of the African colonies they already had in the process. Compelled to save his friend, Mussolini, from embarrassment, Hitler diverted resources -- namely a two-division unit called the Deutsches Afrika Korps under a general named Erwin Rommel -- to North Africa to take on the Allies.
With German assistance, the Axis began to beat back the Allies. But the purpose of Germany’s participation in the North African campaign was not simply to save Italy’s skin. World War II was the first major war for oil, and Hitler had his eye on the plentiful supply of it located in the Middle East and the Caucasus Mountains. The Germans would attempt to seize the Caucasus during their invasion of the Soviet Union with a further possibility of breaking through to Iraq and Iran, where they would link up with Rommel’s forces. Had they succeeded, they would have had access to all the oil they needed for their war. (The petroleum gods did not smile on the Axis, refusing to tell them about the large deposits of oil sitting underneath Italian-controlled Libya, which were not discovered until years after the war.)
Early in the war, both Iraq and Iran were pro-German. Although officially independent, they were under heavy British influence due to the presence of British military bases in the former and British control of the oil industry in both places. (Sound familiar?) In 1941, Britain invaded Iraq to install a pro-Allied government, and she cooperated with the Soviet Union to do the same to Iran later that year. That made the Middle East an Allied domain. [1] If the Axis wanted the oil here, they would have to fight their way through North Africa to get it, and that was what Rommel was on the verge of doing, despite being allotted inadequate resources. By Summer 1942, he was poised to break through to the Suez Canal and the oilfields beyond it. But his poor supply situation then manifested itself when the well-supplied British under their new commander, General Bernard Montgomery, counterattacked and forced him to retreat west, where another Allied force would land that fall to trap him. Rommel knew the game was up, and pleaded with Hitler to evacuate all Axis forces from North Africa so that they could fight another day (in other words, “cut and run”). Hitler was adamantly opposed to this idea, saying that, “North Africa, being the approach to Europe, must be held at all costs.” [2] (That is, we have to fight them there so we will not have to fight them at home.) Then he began to rush troops and materiel to the region (his own version of the “surge”).
It was a matter of too little, too late....