This is the theory now guiding U.S. policy in Iraq. It's the same policy that guided U.S. policy in Vietnam. There is no territory to be won or lost. There is simply a contest of wills between the occupier and the occupied.

It didn't work in Vietnam. It won't work in Iraq.

Captain Brown explained clearly, if unwittingly, one good reason why it won't work. After explaining that "the Arab mind" understands only force, he added: "force, pride and saving face." Wounded pride can stir up a powerful resistance.

But the importance of saving face can easily be exaggerated. Long ago, European imperialists created a stereotype of "the Arab mind" that included a hugely exaggerated concern with pride and saving face. This helped the colonial powers convince themselves that "the Arab mind" was excessively emotional, inherently irrational, and thus incapable of moving into the modern world where logic and pragmatism rule. The Arabs would remain stuck in their memories of medieval glory and their wounded pride, it was said, unless the Europeans pushed, pulled, educated, and cajoled them into modernity.

Now the U.S. has taken up where the Europeans left off.

If only the stubborn, irrational "natives" would realize that the occupiers are there to help, everything would be fine. So the Americans must fondly imagine that they will persuade the Iraqis to want their "help." Just like the colonizers of old, they plan to do it with force and violence.