Right-Wing Adopts “Iraq is Vietnam” Meme?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism, War
Color me surprised.
From Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, comes an article entitled ‘Bush’s Vietnam?’:
For the past 30 years, left-right debate over America’s wars has traveled a well-worn rut. The Left says whatever war is in question is “another Vietnam,� while the Right denies it. After three decades of being serially wrong, in the Iraq war liberals might be making their first-ever correct diagnosis.In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we face a vicious insurgency that has worn down the will of the American public. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have failed to cut off the enemy from re-supply. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have had ever-shifting military strategies. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have had trouble building effective, clean governmental institutions in the soil of an alien culture. Most importantly, in Iraq, as in Vietnam, we face the prospect of defeat.
The consequences of that defeat would be remarkably similar to those in the wake of Vietnam. The prestige of the U.S. government would sink around the world, emboldening our enemies and creating a period of American doubt and retreat. A humanitarian catastrophe would likely befall Iraq, just as it did Vietnam. The only significant difference is that in Iraq, radical Islamists harbor ambitions to come to our shores and kill Americans, whereas the Viet Cong never wanted to follow us home.
Wow. Definitely take a look at the whole thing. Sure, the article doesn’t waste an oppportunity to slam the Dems and take potshots at Ned Lamont, but still…it is a noteworthy development in this world of “Cut and Run!” and “Bush Lied!”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 and is filed under Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 16th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
The part he left out is just like Vietnam, we naively got involved in a complex social-political-tribal conflict with the attitude that might makes right and ended up in an utter mess when things didn’t go our way.
August 16th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
No, this will be a bigger defeat than Vietnam. Vietnam was our proxy war with the USSR and China. Because the other two were involved we couldn’t go in “guns ablazing”. We had the military might to win but couldn’t risk the escalation to bring in the Commies. In Iraq, Bushco made the CEO decision to go the Rumsfeld way and ignore the Powell Doctrine. Iraq was Bush’s to win and he made every bad choice possible. Because of the Cold War, the best we could expect from Vietnam was a draw.
April 27th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
i think the iraq war is just like veitnam we are not going to win it where going to lose alot of soilders before we pull out
May 1st, 2007 at 12:19 pm
We got in over our heads in both instances, but with Iraq we are dealing with a different beast. The people want to help because they see that they are getting killed even faster than the Americans, but our own political failures have forged a distrust of America that only makes it harder for our troops to do their jobs. This is not a Vietnam where random people are pulling AK-47s out of the rice paddy and spraying a passing patrol. There are certain groups coming in to Iraq because they don’t want to see us win. We know who they are, we know where they are coming from, but our hands are tied by politically correct foreign policy. Maybe if Bushco stopped screwing with Midle Eastern politics and concentrated on helping the Iraqui government (who are and have been behaving like a lost puppy) we could get something done. The similarities are convenient for the mud-slinging liberals, but the reality is that we can actually do something good in Iraq if the politicians could put aside their petty squabbling and GET SOMETHING DONE FOR A CHANGE!
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:59 am
Travis has it right on the money.Another thing that needs to be said (because it is true)-we are in Iraq because we followed one of the trails of Al Quaida from 9/11.We are now killing the people who would love to and will try to slaughter us all because we won’t follow their religion.It is much better to fight armed,murderous fanatics in Iraq with our young bucks outfitted with Kevlar and M-16s than to try to catch a suicide bomber in the U.S. before he\she sets off a nuclear backpack or chemical weapon.