Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Fall of Saigon, Part II
This little quote from General Myers brings back memories of Vietnam. In a recent news conference Myers said that the anti-American insurgency is "about where it was a year ago,' in terms of attacks, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said but he said American and Iraqi troops are gaining ground in the two-year-old conflict." The quote is via CNN.com. The last several days I've been reading up on the history of the Vietnam War and it is becoming increasingly clear that those who said that Iraq is Bush's Vietnam were correct. We've become stuck in a quagmire because policy makers ignored the facts on the ground and nuances of local politics because they were blinded by ideology. In each case, the administration tried to impose handpicked rulers who were corrupt and who had little real support in the country. In Vietnam and now in Iraq we have a military public relations machine that keeps telling us that victory is right around the corner. Remember how the assault on Fallujah was going to break the back of the insurgency? Remember how the elections were going to put an end to the insurgency? Remember....? And on it goes. More American men and women in and out of uniform die or are wounded. Each day more and more Iraqis die or are maimed and we are no closer to leaving and the Iraqi's are no closer to democracy, let alone having a stable supply of electricity. With 50 or 60 attacks a week, or even 30 or 40 attacks a day, it's a bit hard to have, in the words of incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "a stable environment inside of which you can rebuild your schools, you can have your electricity turned back on, the water and humanitarian aid can continue to flow, and the people can meet publicly and decide for themselves what kind of government they want." But don't worry, according to the Bush fantasy machine everything is coming up like daisies in Iraq. We're about to turn the corner, just like we were this time last year, or just like we were late last summer. Just imagine how bad things in Iraq would be if we had elected that other fellow with a "plan" to get us out of Iraq and turn things over to a real government or even to the U.N. Why there'd probabbly be 100 or more attacks a week because the insurgents would be emboldened by our "weakness" or they would just wait us out knowing our "plan." Much better to have no plan at all and have the carnage continue. It is clearer than ever that Iraq has become a festering wound that is slowly sapping our ability to do anything positive any where in the world and which will slowly infect and further poison the U.S. body politic. The similarities to the second Nixon administration are getting scarier and scarier every day.
This little quote from General Myers brings back memories of Vietnam. In a recent news conference Myers said that the anti-American insurgency is "about where it was a year ago,' in terms of attacks, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said but he said American and Iraqi troops are gaining ground in the two-year-old conflict." The quote is via CNN.com. The last several days I've been reading up on the history of the Vietnam War and it is becoming increasingly clear that those who said that Iraq is Bush's Vietnam were correct. We've become stuck in a quagmire because policy makers ignored the facts on the ground and nuances of local politics because they were blinded by ideology. In each case, the administration tried to impose handpicked rulers who were corrupt and who had little real support in the country. In Vietnam and now in Iraq we have a military public relations machine that keeps telling us that victory is right around the corner. Remember how the assault on Fallujah was going to break the back of the insurgency? Remember how the elections were going to put an end to the insurgency? Remember....? And on it goes. More American men and women in and out of uniform die or are wounded. Each day more and more Iraqis die or are maimed and we are no closer to leaving and the Iraqi's are no closer to democracy, let alone having a stable supply of electricity. With 50 or 60 attacks a week, or even 30 or 40 attacks a day, it's a bit hard to have, in the words of incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "a stable environment inside of which you can rebuild your schools, you can have your electricity turned back on, the water and humanitarian aid can continue to flow, and the people can meet publicly and decide for themselves what kind of government they want." But don't worry, according to the Bush fantasy machine everything is coming up like daisies in Iraq. We're about to turn the corner, just like we were this time last year, or just like we were late last summer. Just imagine how bad things in Iraq would be if we had elected that other fellow with a "plan" to get us out of Iraq and turn things over to a real government or even to the U.N. Why there'd probabbly be 100 or more attacks a week because the insurgents would be emboldened by our "weakness" or they would just wait us out knowing our "plan." Much better to have no plan at all and have the carnage continue. It is clearer than ever that Iraq has become a festering wound that is slowly sapping our ability to do anything positive any where in the world and which will slowly infect and further poison the U.S. body politic. The similarities to the second Nixon administration are getting scarier and scarier every day.