READ A NEWSPAPER, watch television, or listen to the radio this fall, and the story from Iraq is the violence sweeping the country. Insurgents have stepped up their attacks, you'll hear. More and more U.S. service members are being killed and wounded every month. The international media is fleeing,…

PUNDITS THESE DAYS are quick to compare the fighting in Iraq with the American loss in Vietnam 30 years ago. Terms like "quagmire" evoke the Southeast Asian jungle, where America's technological advantages were negated and committed Vietnamese guerrillas wore down the U.S. will to fight.