Milt Bearden, a 30-year veteran in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations who served as senior manager for clandestine operations, writes that the Iraqi insurgents could have taken their cues from Chinese military tactician Sun Tzu’s 2500-year old Art of War: “attack their strategy, attack their allies, attack their army…”

Sun Tzu also said “know yourself and know your enemy, and of a hundred battles you will have a hundred victories.”

There were two stark lessons in the history of the 20th century: No nation that launched a war against another sovereign nation ever won. And every nationalist-based insurgency against a foreign occupation ultimately succeeded. This is not to say anything about whether or not the United States should have gone into Iraq or whether the insurgency there is a lasting one. But it indicates how difficult the situation may become. —Seattle Times

Ironically, Sun Tzu was invoked as the inspiration behind the US “Shock and Awe” bombardment (Asia Times) of Baghdad which started the US attack on Iraq.