In commenting on the car bombing in Iraq Mark A. R. Kleiman notes:
The bad guys don’t need active majority support to make our lives miserable; it’s enough if our opponents have people willing to kill and die for the cause and our supporters don’t. That seems to be the case right now, and I don’t see what’s going to change it. If this isn’t Vietnam, then it’s Algeria.
I agree with the first half of the statement: it doesn’t take many people to cause massive trouble. However, I think classifying it as either Viet Nam or Algeria at this point is quite premature.
It is possible to have ongoing violence persist whilst actually still having democratic (or, at least quasi-democratic) civil government. The Colombians manage, for example. While hardly an example that one would want to emulate, it isn’t Viet Nam or Algeria, either. Of course, it is too early to even call it Colombia, either, I will readily allow. The situation remains in flux.
And, for that matter, Iraq may end up being Iraq–not all cases can be neatly analogized. Until we see how the movement towards elections and a permanent constitution is fully underway, then it strikes me as rather difficult to accurately categorize the situation.