The United States juggernaut assault on Baghdad stands to become the decisive battle of the Iraq War. President George Walker Bush and General George Armstrong Custer seem to have very similar personality traits. Could George W. Bush be the reincarnation of Gen. Custer?

As Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, a sense of portent and deja-vu can be felt for Bush reprising the role of the arrogant, vainglorious General Custer. The 7th Cavalry is poised on the brink of history once again. This time they will be facing Iraqis instead of Indians. Here is a brief bio of General Custer:

George Armstrong Custer emerged from West Point at the bottom of his class where he had amassed a huge number of demerits. His success in the Civil War might be attributed to his unorthodox methods and the wild charges he led with no concern for the scouting reports, if he ever read them. He had the highest casualty figures among the Union division commanders. However, he himself emerged unscathed.

After the war he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Cavalry on America's western frontier. Custer is best remembered for losing the battle of Little Bighorn, June 25th, 1876, in which his troops faced combined bands of Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians led by the chief Sitting Bull. The battle ended with Custer's troops on a knoll encircled by Indians a moment which became known as Custer's Last Stand; Custer and his entire force of over 200 men were killed. The battle made Custer a popular American hero and martyr for nearly a century, but by the late 1900s his stardom faded a bit as his tactics were more closely examined and as popular attitudes toward Native Americans changed.

Will American support for Operation Iraqi Freedom diminish due to heavy casualties and the battle for Baghdad be remembered in history as Bush's Little Bighorn? I hope the worst case scenario will be averted. Only time will tell.

Addendum:

APRIL 14, 2003 (AP) - "We were like Custer," recalled Sgt. James Riley, 31, Pennsauken, N.J. As the senior soldier present, it fell to him to surrender. "We were surrounded. We had no working weapons. We couldn't even make a bayonet charge — we would have been mowed down. We didn't have a choice," Riley said." But Riley and four others were bound, blindfolded and, in some cases, beaten by their Iraqi captors.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/14/sprj.irq.pows/
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