Iraq & Vietnam

Having spent his stateside “military service” in and AWOL from the “Champagne Corp” unit of the Texas Air National Guard, it is understandable (but not excusable) that George W. Bush now thinks the primary lesson to glean from Vietnam is that U.S. soldiers have to keep killing and dying for a lost cause to prevent more killing and dying after they leave.

In fact the key lessons to learn from Vietnam (and Iraq) are that U.S. presidents should never start wars based on lies, especially against countries that aren’t threatening us.

Until the next American president acknowledges these truths, and until the “neocon” perpetrators of the Iraqi fiasco are tried and imprisoned, it is probably unrealistic to expect that any ally (particularly from “Old” Europe) will help any U.S. administration extricate our country from this costly and predicted debacle, or enthusiastically cooperate in our efforts to reduce the international threat of anti-American terrorism.

Furthermore, until Americans stop voting for candidates and parties that believe war is a legitimate instrument of foreign policy, it is reasonable to expect that we will continue to be a favorite terrorist target, and our middle class standard of living (health, education, welfare, etc.) will continue to slip further behind the standards set by the best post-imperial “Western” societies.

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