No two wars are ever the same any more than you can step on the same banana peel twice. That said, Napoleon's invasion and occupation of Spain, from 1808 to 1814 -- the war that gave us the word 'guerrilla' and was immortalized in Goya's 'Third of May,' the war that drained France's army, smashed Napoleon's reputation for invincibility, and left Spain thrashing like a broken-backed snake for decades -- has striking similarities to our invasion and occupation of Iraq. Both wars started under the influence of similar delusions. Napoleon thought that the Spanish would roll over and play dead as so many other European states had; he thought marching to Madrid and placing his brother Joseph on the throne would complete the subjugation of Spain. We pretty much thought the same: crushing Saddam's army would be easy; we would then install a pro-American government (Ahmad the Thief) and have most of our Army home by fall... (for publication 03/28/05)

http://www.amconmag.com/2005_03_28/article.html

from The American Conservative, by Gregory Cochran


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp