Word: tet
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...weeks, as the clock runs down on time ahead of the September progress report due in Washington. And yesterday Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of U.S. forces in southern Iraq, echoed the fear when talking to reporters in the Green Zone. "We're concerned about some kind of Tet offensive that's going to affect the debate in Washington," Lynch said, harking back to the pivotal 1968 push by communist forces in Vietnam...
Today the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk witnessed one version of what an Iraqi Tet offensive might look like. At midday, a car bomb shook the city. Then came another blast, followed by one more. The coordinated trio of explosions left at least 75 people dead and offered a horrifying glimpse of the kind of organized assaults that American officials fear could unfold nationwide. Imagine a day in Iraq when catastrophic car bombs rip through not just one Iraqi city but several. Explosions coordinated to go off nearly simultaneously in places like Baghdad, Baqubah, Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul, all places...
...Digicel, its 2,000 employees hold an 8% stake, and the private-equity firm Blackstone Group has about 3%. But O'Brien hasn't ruled out an ipo to fund his American adventure, one that's expected to be worth an additional $2.5 billion. "I've launched a Tet offensive on every possible objection," O'Brien says, "because there's nobody who doesn't deserve a new phone...
...That comparison obviously looks plain silly, now, so instead we are left with Vietnam - albeit different interpretations of Vietnam. As Professor Juan Cole points out, Bush is probably relying on a hawkish view that while the Tet Offensive was a major military defeat for the Viet Cong, the spike of violence it brought may have struck a crippling political blow at the American public's will to fight the war. As Cole notes, the irony is that the upside of Tet may not be the first thing that comes to mind for Americans when their President compares Iraq to Vietnam...
...Washington is so desperately seeking a new strategy for Iraq. The present one clearly isn't working, and each of the alternatives - from "cut and run" through partition, finding a new strongman regime or bringing in the neighbors to sort things out - carries more peril than prospect. The Tet Offensive analogy offers a false choice between an ignominious retreat and a dogged determination to stay the course...