corrente

Looks like Shinseki was right on the force levels we'd need in Iraq. For which the Piranha Brothers in the WhiteWash House (back here) promptly nailed his head to the floor. Anyhow:

British experience in Northern Ireland showed that 20 troops per thousand of population -- the equivalent of 500,000 in Iraq -- was the strength best suited to maintaining order in a restive community, Clarke said.

But a sudden call for reinforcement could also fan the flames, [Michael Clarke, director of the International Policy Institute at King's College London, ] added: "That in itself is a big step toward a manifest crisis -- being seen to have to reinforce."

The prospect of simultaneous Sunni and Shi'ite uprisings -- the nightmare scenario for any force in Iraq -- has been faced before, when a Western army tried to pacify Iraq eight decades ago.

"The British took three years to turn both the Sunnis and the Shias into their enemies in 1920," journalist Robert Fisk wrote in the Independent newspaper. "The Americans are achieving this in just under a year."

Britain crushed that revolt with massive air strikes that killed thousands of Iraqi civilians.
(via Reuters)

Pessimistic? Or realistic?