The Malay precedent

Laurie Mylroie has circulated this important piece by John O’Sullivan from the November 24 National Review: “The Malay precedent: Lessons from the Brits.” O’Sullivan analyzes the current challenge in Iraq in light of the anti-guerrilla campaigns waged by the British against the (mainly Chinese) Communist insurgents in Malaya between 1946 and 1958.
Here’s O’Sullivan’s conclusion: “[T]he administration has not succeeded in demonstrating that the war in Iraq is part and parcel of the War on Terror. And though September 11 made patriotism almost universal again, after years of multicultural dilution, the Bush administration took no steps to give this emotion political clarity and intellectual content, and therefore permanence. Unless the Iraqi security situation improves soon, these may be failures the administration comes bitterly to regret.”

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