I CAN'T understand why people are so excited about our beating Iraq. It reminds me of the Italians who crowded the streets of Rome to welcome the victorious legions home from Ethiopia.

Even more similar was the pride the Nazis took in their triumph over Poland. Poland then had the sixth largest army in the world, but it was quickly overrun because the Germans had better equipment and air supremacy.

The truth is that the war on Iraq was not much of a test of how our armed forces would do against a good army and a good air force. One has to wonder how we could have so overrated Hussein's army, knowing that it had taken eight years to gain a draw with the poorly equipped and disorganized Iranians.