Dubya is expected to announce this evening that he will send 20,000 more troops to Iraq. There was another conflict in which the U.S. was embroiled, and that president at that time thought another push could get the job done. Now which conflict was that?

An excerpt from the BBC story:

The strategy also has potential contradictions between the hope for quick results and the gradualism favoured by the US Army's newly formulated counter insurgency tactics.

These were drawn up by Gen David Petraeus, soon to be the new US commander in Iraq.

The media's use of the word "surge" to describe the additional forces, implying something rapid but short-lived, also goes against the concepts developed by Gen Petraeus.

History does not repeat itself exactly, so what happened in Vietnam might not happen in Iraq, but there are parallels that are interesting to note

• First there is the realisation in Washington that it is not winning. Mr Bush has admitted this himself
• Second, there is a policy of trying to hand over responsibility to the local government in the midst of battle, not after it - this happened in Vietnam with the policy of Vietnamisation
• Third, there is the belief by the US administration that more troops are an important part of the answer
• Fourth, there is an opposite belief by others that the enterprise cannot work and that disengagement must be sought - US public doubt is a theme common to both conflicts
• Fifth, in Vietnam too the president consulted an outside group - they were called the Wise Men and, like the Iraq Study group, they too urged a policy designed to lead to withdrawal