IT’S “WEDDING PARTY” NEWS ANALYSIS AT THE BELMONT CLUB and it’s quite interesting.

UPDATE: Ralph Peters writes that the U.S. military has to get inside its enemies’ response curve. And he has an interesting analysis of who the enemies are.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Barry Dauphin emails:

I read the Peters article-thanks for the link. 1) I wonder if that’s why the Pentagon wanted such a speedy entry into Baghdad last year, i.e., Rummy gets it as far as need for speed. 2) The worrisome part of the analysis is that he implies our enemies understand our collective psyche better than we understand theirs. If that is accurate (and I’m afraid it is), we have to catch up in that department. The problem is it will mean dispensing with much political correctness which probably isn’t going to happen any time soon or until something significantly more tragic than 9/11 happens.

I’ve also felt that we don’t understand our potential friends in the Middle East either. I think we grossly underestimated the long term toll living under a totalitarian regime would have on the people (despite the recent collapse of the Soviet Union). Mass passivity is one possible outcome from that. Although many Iraqis are becoming active in many ways, a great deal of the population probably just wishes the trouble to all go away without taking any risks themselves. Saddam butchered so many and terrorized the rest. How many Iraqis survived by looking for ways to not cause trouble? That would be a hard habit to change. Second it could also feel shameful that one’s liberators are infidels.

Interesting points.

ANOTHER UPDATE: This military blogger says that Ralph Peters is right on the problem, but dangerously wrong on the solution.