In the long view of history, the war was unwinnable. As Neil Sheehan’s masterpiece A Bright Shining Lie shows, it was a war of Vietnamese nationalism, and the French and American interventions were seen by most Vietnamese as last stands of colonialism rather than as Cold War imperatives. ...he [Obama] also needs to tell the country bluntly that there will almost certainly be more American casualties, and that the struggle against ISIS—against radical Islam generally, but especially in this case—will be difficult, with no quick military solution and no end in sight. Otherwise, he’ll have brought the public and Congress on board without leveling with them, a pattern set in Vietnam and repeated in Iraq, with unhappy consequences. - George Packer Packer notes that we deserted many loyal Vietnamese when we got out of Vietnam. He points out that Obama doesnt want to repeat that seeming mistake in Iraq. There is a presumption here that more Americans should die in order to right a wrong committed by the Bush Administration when it invaded Iraq, removed its strongman dictator and tried to set up a puppet government as we did in Vietnam. That effort in Vietnam was doomed to fail. This effort in Iraq is doomed to fail. That much is obvious to everyone except the neocons who started this war. If we do not acknowledge the obvious, we will only cause even more death and destruction than we already have. We cant promote peace by bombing people.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:14:19 +0000
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