ON PARALLELS BETWEEN VIETNAM AND IRAQ

COMMENTARY

IMMEDIATE UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS FROM IRAQ

As anyone who writes a political blog probably has become aware of sometimes you get drawn into a discussion that you really do not want to get involved in. Until very, very recently I have tried NOT to draw parallels between the American experience in the Vietnam War of my youth and the Iraq War of my old age. I broke that policy slightly over the last couple of weeks in comparing the fate of Nguyen Diem in Vietnam in 1963 and the possible fate of al-Maliki today in Iraq. In Diem’s case once the Kennedy Administration got disenchanted with him coup planning began full time. Do not the tom toms out of Iraq drum that same siren song today?

Strangely, one George W. Bush, the President of the United States, had until very, very recently observed the same policy as I had of not drawing parallels with Vietnam. For his own reasons, of course. Now that his Iraq policy is clearly on the ropes he wants to invoke the supposed horrors of the ‘cut and run’ American policy in Vietnam as a reason to not 'cut and run' in Iraq. And that, dear reader, is why a couple of brief comments are in order about those parallels.

Although the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq have absolutely nothing to do with the overwhelming American military capacity to return either of those societies back to the Stone Age (as the Americans almost succeeded in doing with their various relentless bombing strategies in Vietnam) it does have everything to do with the hubris behind that assumption. Is there really a hell of a lot of different between the assumptions of one War Secretary Robert McNamara and his “Whiz Kids” in Vietnam and one War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his “Neo-Cons”? I think not. The military capacity to level cities, either Hanoi then or Fallujah now, in order to create a security zone for the government is nevertheless a house of cards. Does anyone today think that once the American troops either turns over military responsibly to the Iraqis after long-term training or straight-out withdraw that the situation will be stable? Hell, no. As in Vietnam, the forces in play are just waiting for the Americans leave in order to return. And seemingly, unlike Americans, they are patient. Know this- If the American troops stay ten more years they will wait. Moreover, one only has to take a cursory glance at the history of the Vietnam conflict to find that same phenomena. There was an apt old army expression for it- ‘the night belongs to Charlie’ (the Viet Cong). In Iraq 'the night belongs to al-Sadr' and others.

American bourgeois politicians have the seemingly willful capacity to refuse to learn the lessons of history either from the European experiences or their own. Here I will pass over the little things like Ronald Reagan's 1980's invasion of Grenada, covert support to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan and the not so covert aid to the contras in Nicaragua. I will brush aside Bush Senior’s 1990's little Iraq escapade. And this writer would not dream of impinging on the liberal Clinton's (Bill) little air war against Serbia over Kosovo. Hell, nobody could learn lessons from those experiences and no bourgeois politician needed to because these were essentially walkovers. So it really is back to Vietnam if you want to see the full panoply of imperialist hubris in action. And the blowback. That is the point. The assumption is that the timetables are determined to suit American conveniences and predilections. Al-Maliki’s situation is a case in point. He has run as an inept and corrupt crony-serving operation as Diem did in Vietnam. That he is a lapdog of American imperialism is a given. However, he has to respond, as every politician must, to his base. And that base is nationalistic and patriotic, as well as sectarian, and by its own lights will do what it can to seem independent from the Americans. ‘Cut and run’ now is the beginning of wisdom in order to cut larger losses later. That is just sensible. But since we know after five long years of war that this administration is NOT sensible we had better keep fighting to build those anti-war soldier and sailor solidarity committees and get those troop transports revved up- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal from Iraq, come hell or high water.