Dac Nelson

First, still tweaking the site and learning WP styles.

Second, I will say this. I did not listen to the Chief Executive’s speech today in which he apparently about-faced and finally started comparing Iraq to Vietnam, mainly because hearing him speak offends my ears as an editor of the English language. But, if he really believes that we “lost” Vietnam because we did not stay long enough, perhaps somebody should show him the video of a helicopter evacuating the U.S. embassy as NVA are swarming the streets of Saigon.

Also, I want to get something clear. I hear all the time from the neocon camp that we should “get the job done” or “complete the mission” in Iraq. So … what, in fact, is the “job”? What is the job that needs to be done? What are the military objectives of staying in Iraq? Is that not what was supposed to be the great lesson of Vietnam? That there was no clear military objective? That we should never again allow the United States to be drawn into another war in which there is no clear military objective?

Next, what worries me is that there also might be a parallel between the illegal military activity in Cambodia and illegal military activity in Iran. The only difference there will be that Iran will respond aggressively and publicly against what is already an overextended military. If we leave Iraq and leave Iran alone, trust me, Iran will take care of itself. The youth movement there was sympathetic to the West not too long ago. Leaving Iran alone will isolate Ahmadinejad better than anything we can do on the world stage.

Finally, what was the justification for remaining in Vietnam long after it was obvious that we were not “winning the hearts and minds” of the populace? The Domino Theory. If we left Vietnam, we would lose all of Asia to the Great Red Threat: Communism. Communism, so great a threat to the freedom-loving nations of the world that it in practice collapses under the massive weight of exponential bureaucracy and an economic system that rewards need and punishes excellence. What a joke. Communism was a wide-sweeping sledgehammer for the politics of fear. Could terrorism possibly be a new blunt instrument in the politics of fear?

To review:

• We were in a war in which we stayed too long;
• We were in a war in which there was no military objective;
• We found out that there were illegal things being done by our government in neighboring states; and
• Grandiose fear mongering was used to justify our continued presence long after reason dictated that we should leave.

So what could possibly be different now?