Ayn Rand wrote in 1975 that the Vietnam war was, "a modern monstrosity called a "no-win" war, in which the American forces were not permitted to act, but only to react: they were to "contain" the enemy, but not to beat him." (This essay is contained in her book 'The Voice of Reason.') Were she alive today she would be writing much the same thing about the Iraq war.
Robert Tracinski discusses the parallels between the two wars in the May issue of The Intellectual Activist. Since the article is only in the print edition I'll refer you to the Cox and Forkum blog describing it.
In addition to the analysis of wartime similarities, Alan Forkum writes, "In my opinion, there's no indication that presidential candidate Senator John Kerry would ever adopt such a pro-American, self-interested, military-oriented policy. So I will continue to voice criticisms of the Bush Administration and hope that President Bush, if re-elected, will do better."
While liberals like Teddy Cocktail complain that Bush and Co. are warmongers who concocted their ideological Iraqi war in Crawford prior to 9/11, they have no idea just how far off the mark they are.
Posted by JohnGalt at June 21, 2004 05:46 PMHmmmmm. Color me skeptical of the comparison. I read Alex Forkum's piece but I do not subscribe to TIA.
I'm okay with a more muscular approach to the insurgents, but I will admit that there is a benefit to holding back.
The Vietnam-Iraq comparison disturbs me from the right or left. The North Vietnamese were re-supplied by China and the Soviet Union, whom we could not defeat militarily at the time.
The other specious facet of the comparison is scale. Every soldier's life is precious but the loss of the entire Iraq campaign, which does show signs of victory, is the same as a bad couple of weeks in Vietnam.
Lastly, I'll debate the rightness of a new colonialism where we impose our (superior) values on the conquered plains of Mesopotamia, but I am plenty sympathetic to those who think it is a bad idea. If a theocracy sprouts in Baghdad, that is bad but it does not completely discredit the liberation.
Keep in mind that these people, not unlike myself, are talking about philosophical ideals. When our volunteer soldiers risk and lose their lives in the cause of liberty then liberty is what should result.
For those soldiers who fight for "God and country" perhaps an Iraqi theocracy is an acceptable outcome.
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