Mark Phillips: The American Question
4/4/04: Tet.
1968s Tet Offensive by Vietnamese resistance fighters undermined the credibility
of the Johnson administration's core
narrative:
that the war was being slowly won.
Will the uprising launched yesterday by followers of Muqtada al-Sadr achieve
something similar?
For months Washington's spokespeople have repeated a familiar story.
Iraqis support the occupation. The armed resistance which has killed
hundreds of occupation soldiers is the work of small numbers of
die-hard Saddam supporters,
religious fanatics, and foreign jihadis. It's confined to
the Sunni triangle; the country's Shiite majority
are largely uninvolved.
It was already clear to close observers that this story couldn't be taken seriously.
Guerilla attacks happened in the south and the far north. Huge anti-occupation
demonstrations were routine. Saddam's capture made no difference.
But this clarity only existed for those paying careful attention to the news.
Casual observers might be more likely to accept the official narrative of
progress and success.
Will the uprising, like Tet, make the old narratives impossible?
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