No History

In 1964 the leader of Colombia's anti-government insurgency, Pedro Marin, holed up in the small town of Marquetalia. The guerilla organization that followed him at the time was made up of 42 men. Determined to wipe out this group ( due to their advocacy of communist ideals) the United States military assisted the Colombian government in staging an assault on their hideout. An overwhelming amount of military force was applied in what eventually became an all-out, month-long seige of Marquetalia. What was the end result? Of Marin's 42 followers a grand total of two were killed, with the rest escaping into the dense jungle region of the southern Colombia. There is no question that Marin's group had engaged in terroristic violence on their part. But this heavy handed response by the Colombia military was so over the top that it brought world-wide condemnation and made the leftist guerillas seem more like victims than terrorists. Average Colombians were outraged and as the years passed membership for the group swelled, the insurgency grew, and today, more than fourty years later, Colombia is essentially in a state of civil war. The invasion of Marquetalia ultimately created the very problem that it sought to destroy. This is something I'm reminded of every time I hear that we are on the verge of "taking" Fallujah, because I think that we will almost certainly prevail there.
It just seems that an impressive military victory is almost always a guaranteed receipe for failure. We'll kill people, the "bad guys" of course, but bullets won't touch the resentment or anger. In fact, due to our inablity to learn and adapt to history, we'll predictably foster the resentment towards us.
Anyway, I'm tired of hearing about Iraq being the next Vietnam, I think Colombia is a far more instructive comparison. Robin Kirk has a great book out on the situation there, called "More Terrible Than Death", it's very concise and informative....ideally it would be required reading here in the States.