Relics?

I don't know if my thoughts are completely formed or even cogent on this but I am struck by something.

On the one hand you have John McCain demanding that American troops stay in Iraq until they can return home victorious. For one thing, I didn't know people used the word "victorious" anymore. I must be an "in victory" kinda guy. Anyway, I can't shake the impression that McCain is trying to redeem the Vietnam War here. I expect him to slip up one of these days and utter the implicit "this time" at the end of his speech. It would not be unprecedented for a politician to seek to defeat the Vietnam syndrome once and for all. Secretary Rumsfeld's Iraq plan sought to prove that wars could be won with out bogging down a la Vietnam.

The parallel case is Dick Cheney trying to prove that we overreacted to Watergate and that concentration of power in the Oval Office is natural and desirable.

What is it with these guys? Are all of us spending our lives waiting for the opportunity to vindicate a past failure or can we just avoid these guys? What about Obama - is he seeking to redress the failure of the Black Star Line? Haight Ashbury? The breakup of the Beatles?

Crazy Like a Fox

From Paul Krugman, excerpted here:

Here’s how I see it: At this point, Mr. Bush is looking forward to replaying the political aftermath of Vietnam, in which the right wing eventually achieved a rewriting of history that would have made George Orwell proud, convincing millions of Americans that our soldiers had victory in their grasp but were stabbed in the back by the peaceniks back home.

I have always had the sense that the NeoCons were re-fighting Vietnam. Now they are preparing to complete the cycle. Pray that these men will live out their days and a new generation will not rise up to replace them, bitter and self-righteous, in 40 years.

Let's Compare Vietnam to Iraq...

George Bush's advisers will always win points for audacity. Making the taboo comparison between Vietnam and Iraq turns convention on its head and beats the Democrats on over the noggin with it.

Alright, Mr President, we should stay the course in Iraq just like we should have in Vietnam. Of course, to do this we will need an Army a lot like that which was used in Vietnam. Did I mention that it was an Army of conscripts? Maintaining a force of this size will require a long term commitment to a much larger military and a draft is the only way that is possible in a time of war.

Let's roll.

On Iraq, Viet Nam and Fighting Terrorists

In an August 22 speech, the Historian-in-Chief claimed, among other things, that America’s enemies view American withdrawal at the end of the Viet Nam War as a sign of our inherent weakness. Throw in Beirut or Somalia and Bush is 100% correct. Kudos to his speech writers. Someday a young terrorist may point out to his followers that the US did not have the stamina to complete our mission in Afghanistan before moving on to Iraq.

The conceptual error, or rather the psychological crutch, comes in concluding that Viet Nam was lost because we pulled out. By definition I suppose the war is not lost until you leave the battlefield or are dead. In practice, there comes a moment when one side can no longer achieve victory and the war is, for all intents and purposes, over. This is the point when those living in the Reality-Based community start searching for a way to prevent their retreat from turning into a rout.

The lesson on Viet Nam is that the number of situations in which military might is sufficient is fleetingly small. So Osama Bin Laden thinks that the US is weak because it pulled out of Viet Nam and Mogadishu? Let him! This is a man who believes that he is going to establish a new Caliphate. So let’s allow him the fantasy that America is a pushover. We may be naïve and anti-intellectual but we are also basically resilient and just plain big. Now is the time to prove we are not stupid.

While Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri sit in godforsaken Waziristan, boasting about how they have tricked the West into doing their bidding, we should come to our senses and treat these thugs in a quiet and deliberate way. No B52s. No bounties. There may still be a role for “special” units but the thrust will be - *gasp* - diplomatic and judicial. We have dealt with spies, internal terrorists and organized crime in the past. Many were brought to justice. It’s not sexy and it would be hard work but it can be done (as if fighting a land war in central Asia is a cake walk.) America has never been especially good at human intelligence and we will have a lot to learn. In the end, however, while Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri dream their dreams of the overthrow of apostate Egypt and Saudi Arabia, we will be steadily tightening the noose and dragging them, finally, disgraced and robbed of their mystique, to be judged before the world.

Update 24-Aug-2007: Punched up the ending

Have your Godwin Card Ready

Recent reports are that Vice President Cheney is planning a behind-the-scenes coup to undermine President Bush's decision to employ diplomacy in dealing with Iran. Considered along side this review of Vietnam revisionism, suggests to me a slender thread connecting post-WWI Germany and modern day neoconservatives like Mr Cheney.

Play your Godwin's Law card here!

It's as if the need to avenge the loss of the previous war forces emerging leaders to view every situation as an opportunity to find redemption. One is left to wonder if a later successful application of total war purges these men and women of the need to prove themselves so that the can mellow in their old age.

In any case, I am becoming convinced that National Humiliation is too often left out of consideration when examining the consequences and reactions to foreign policy.