From: Monte Davis 

Adam  wrote:

>Oh indeed but with the sole exception of the korean & the falklands war,
>all the UK's fighting has been asymetric...

> India, Palestine, Malaya, Korea, Suez Canal Zone, Kenya, Cyprus, Suez
>1956,  Borneo, Vietnam, Aden, Radfan, Oman, Dhofar, Northern Ireland,
> the Falklands War, the Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and
> many more.

I'm well aware of it. Actually, so has much of the US' fighting: Max Boot's
_The Savage Wars of Peace_ surveys a couple hundred episodes over a couple
hundred years. Most were asymmetric, and most were partial wins or draws,
settled well short of victory.

But WWII, the Civil War, and a (somehat misremembered) WWI loom largest in
folk memory; many Americans *think* our tradition is and always ought to be
smashing, clear-cut victory. Much of the lasting right-wing sourness over
Yalta (the 'unleash Patton' fans), Korea (MacArthur fans), and Vietnam
(betrayal by press, Congress and hippies) hinges on comparing them
unfavorably to WWII -- in their minds the way a war *ought* to end for the
USA unless we are stabbed in the back.

Then again, I believe the UK has its share of folk memory... issues (and
more than its share of TV programming time) w/r/t WWII as well..?


I'll trade you Leyte Gulf and two Grenadas for Amiens 1918, two Falklands
and a Cyprus (the good year, with Ian Richardson shooting the EOKA
prisoner).

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