Fleas, Dogs and We're Doomed

Flea.... is to ..... Dog

AS

Insurgent ..... is to..... US soldier


Reuters reports the US Army "is adapting its training to "the war of the flea," the type of hit-and-run insurgency that is gripping Iraq." Counterinsurgency training has all but disappeared after Vietnam but now a new revised manual on it has been compiled and will be available in the spring. One of the books of required reading was written in 1964. And another treatise written about the same time called "War of the Flea" by Robert Taber is "now high on contemporary military reading lists because of Iraq." On "War of the Flea"......

Taber likened guerrillas to fleas and conventional armies to dogs. The dog is always at a disadvantage against the flea -- he has "too much to defend, too small, ubiquitous and agile an enemy to come to grips with. If the war continues long enough ... the dog succumbs to exhaustion and anemia without ever having found anything on which to close its jaws or to rake with its claws."

I'll say up front that I am not a military expert but it seems a couple of concerns jump out at me.
1964?? Are there not more contemporary writings on insurgencies?

And FLEAS. A bit of a PR problem to say the least
as it just reaks of .......

Do we really want to viewed as taking the lowest road of fascist, Nazi-like propaganda?
Isn't Karen Hughes' job hard enough?