History Revisited

Lately I have noticed that the war in Iraq has decided parallels to the war in Vietnam. No, not the quagmire comment bandied about by the Left; nor the notion that all the warriors in Iraq are there because they had no other viable alternative. Well, maybe that is the correlation. The far-Left in America is always reminding the rest of us that they are smarter and more creative than the rest of us. It seems though that they have accepted the notion of "it ain't broke, don't fix it" when it comes to opposing American national security issues. I say that because while reading Whitewash/Blackwash: The Myths of the Viet Nam War something I have long believed was put forth in a more learned way than I have been able to muster. Simply put, the extreme-Left in America is helping our jihadist enemy kill United States soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen by extending the war in Iraq.

"The North Vietnamese government paid close attention to all of this, listening every day to world news on the radio, tracking the progress of the antiwar movement. They considered the antiwar movement essential to their strategy and rejoiced in visits to Hanoi by American public figures condemning the US involvement. They acknowledged privately that Tet had been a staggering defeat, but took heart from realizing that they had gained a political advantage, as shown so clearly by Johnson's decision to not run for office again. At that point they became supremely confident that all they had to do was maintain a level of conflict in South Vietnam long enough and the US would pull out, not because of lack of ability to wage the war, but because steady erosion of the will to fight would force an eventual withdrawal." pgs. 19-20

If that sounds eerily familiar it is because the jihadis have been doing the same thing the North Vietnamese did. If anything, it is easier for the jihadis to follow the news and plant their own stories. The 24 hour news cycle, ability to post anything, anytime on the internet and the complicity of a world-wide media that sees no good in anything the US undertakes outside our borders, and precious little inside, all make it easier for the bad guys to shape the war. The anti-American Left, most noticeably A.N.S.W.E.R. and Code Pink, have taken a page from the playbook of the 60s and 70s antiwar movement. In fact, some of them are one in the same. Code Pink sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Fallujah, while the US Marines were fighting in Fallujah. Ramsey Clark defended Saddam Hussein in his war crimes trial. The politicians who owe their job security to the most radical elements of the American left trumpet the notion that "The War in Iarq is lost," or "The Americans are the real terrorists." The newspaper of record, The New York Times does its part and places Abu Ghraib photos on the front page for 6 straight weeks, but relegates an uncovered plot to blow up fuel tanks at JFK International Airport to page 30.

People have been conditioned to think that the antiwar movement is considerate and compassionate and simply wants the suffering to end. The truth is that for the hard liners among them the opposite is the truth. I have stood on the street and been called a war criminal and baby killer. The far left does not like soldiers, much less support them. They feel we are somehow less evolved than they are. If it were not for the virulent antiwar movement here in the US we could have conceivably struck hard enough that the jihadis would have chosen to abandon this particular battlefield. At the very least the jihadis would have been denied as much positive recruitment and little, to no, public support among the rank and file Iraqis.

I am still a firm believer in the American spirit. I know the American fighting man cannot be defeated in battle. I am not the first to say that the only way we can lose is if we are defeated here at home, but it is more than factual. It is a historical precedent. It is time to stand up and refuse to accept a revisitng of bad behavior. It is time for those of us who care to simply say: enough.