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Gary Hart: The Real Lessons Of The Iraq War

Gary Hart: The Real Lessons Of The Iraq War
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Writer, layabout and all-around nogoodnik; web publisher; former Associate News Editor, The Huffington Post

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The second kind of lessons are less obvious and have to do with the new realities of the 21st century:

First, treat jihadist terrorism more like organized crime than traditional warfare. By declaring "war on terrorism" we made the fatal mistake that it could be crushed using conventional warfare and massed armies. We clearly had the legal and moral right to overturn the Taliban government in Afghanistan that harbored al Qaeda as it planned and carried out the 9.11 attacks. Even so, the democratization of an ancient tribal society is proving hugely more difficult than driving the Taliban out of Kabul. Indeed, it seems set on returning.

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