©
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005
Taken from the news section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Send Julia Roberts, not tanks
Max Hastings
Many American soldiers are beginning to
think that the US will not win the war in
Iraq. They remember what happened in
Vietnam. In recent years the US army has
become a very effective army for big
military operations in other countries, but it
has never been effective against insurgents.
It is very difficult for regular armies to fight
against guerrillas and suicide bombers.
Some years ago, I heard an American
general talking about the US army. He said
to me: "We went into Korea in 1950 with a
very poor army, and came out of it in 1953
with a very good one. We went into
Vietnam in 1964 with a fine army, and
came out in 1975 with a terrible one." Some
American officers think the same thing is
happening in Iraq. The US armed forces are
fighting a difficult war. It is now possible
that it will have to leave Iraq without
winning this war.
Other people think that America will win in
the end but not with its army. Edward
Luttwak, an American military expert, has
said that the US began to win the Vietnam
War the day after it left Vietnam in April
1975. The US military lost the military
battle but, Luttwak says, it began to win
culturally and economically. In theory
Vietnam is still a communist state, but in
reality capitalism is everywhere. American
values are winning in Vietnam just as they
are present in other nations which want to
be wealthy.
Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida group
are fighting against this cultural and
economic invasion but it is a very difficult
battle. It is more difficult to fight against
Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg than it is to
fight against a regular army. Recent history
shows us that America is more skilful in
using economic and cultural power than it is
in using military power.
Last spring in a refugee camp in Gaza, I
asked a group of children what they enjoyed
watching on television. Immediately they
all said: "Rambo! Rambo!”. This was a
surprising answer not because of the
character of Rambo but where Rambo
comes from. The parents of these children
hated America but Hollywood has a much
greater power than the power of President
Bush and the Pentagon. Young Palestinians
may hate the US, but American culture is
everywhere.
To return to Iraq: even if the insurgents
force the Americans to leave the country,
they have much less chance of winning a
war against Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and
so on, because people can now watch
satellite TV easily all over Iraq.
Powerful armies might become less
important in the 21st century than cultural
forces. We had examples of this in the last
