A lesson from the past arises in Afghanistan

Something in this post rang a small alarm bell. Specifically, this excerpt from the NY Times:

A year after Canadian and American forces drove hundreds of Taliban fighters from the area, the Panjwai and Zhare districts southwest of Kandahar, the rebels are back and have adopted new tactics. Carrying out guerrilla attacks after NATO troops partly withdrew in July, they overran isolated police posts and are now operating in areas where they can mount attacks on Kandahar, the south’s largest city.
The setback is part of a bloody stalemate that has occurred between NATO troops and Taliban fighters across southern Afghanistan this summer. NATO and Afghan Army soldiers can push the Taliban out of rural areas, but the Afghan police are too weak to hold the territory after they withdraw.

I have no doubt that somewhere a lesson from the past has been lost in the annals of history. Certainly, Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier should have at least studied it, but then perhaps it wasn't on the reading list. Peter Mackay, aside from being dumber than a sack of hammers, is far too young to have absorbed the lesson and doesn't have an inkling of the details of military operations in any sense. (Although his mother, a Raging Granny, peace activist and womens' rights advocate, might have been able to spoon feed little Petey at one point. Opportunity lost, I suppose.)

But the lesson is out there.

From Deanna McGookin:

We didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Day after day, things seemed to be pretty much the same . . . they'd take a hill, lose a hill, take a hill, lose a hill.

From Jim Wodecki:

It is also sad to me that so many died there. Rush the hill, take the hill, then abort the hill and give it back.

From Richard Nixon:

The South Vietnamese have continued to gain in strength. As a result they have been able to take over combat responsibilities from our American troops.

That's right. Viet Nam.

I wonder, do these wieners have any idea what they've gotten involved in?