Wasn't it a Muslim American who invented the term "rope-a-dope?"
Maybe Muhammed Ali brought more Islamic culture to bear in developing the rope-a-dope strategy with which he felled the mighty George Foreman than any of us ever thought!
The New York Times reports this morning,in an article just under the lead story about American troops reaching the center of Falluja, that American commanders concede that the rebels, including the leadership, had largely fled the city.
http://nytimes.com/2004/11/10/international/middleeast/10insurgency.html?hp&ex=1100149200&en
=a77ad238e3475d49&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Sounds like the whole Iraq war in miniature, doesn't it?
That march to Bagdad, curiously unencumbered by resisting armies. Just those looters stocking up with weapons buzzing around showing that democracy is messy.
Then they started blowing up things. The occupier's crown swiftly turned heavy. The mission that seemed accomplished...hmmm, we hadn't checked with the opposition, had we? Had someone conceded? No. The unilateral warmakers were engaging in unilateral victory declarations.
Instead, an opposition would soon have the Americans bombing residential neighborhoods--luring the occupier to give them our best shots, not merely following the principles of the rope-a-dope handbook on exhausting the giant, but multiplying the numbers of their own side willing to jump on the occupier's now-stooped back, what with all the people developing blood grudges in response to friends and children and wives blown up at their coffee tables.
How they must be looking forward to the Americans' declaration of victory in taking the city of Falluja. Let's see if the Americans have learned anything, they might be saying, while thinking there's not a chance.