Well we're in now so losing is unthinkable...
...is becoming a common refrain from pro-warriors. Gerard Baker in today's FT says:"That is why the most important reason Iraq is not Vietnam is that it is a more important struggle. That is not to belittle the sacrifices made by Americans and Vietnamese. But the US lost in Vietnam, and yet none of the feared consequences of that defeat materialised. The mid-1970s, the nadir of post-Vietnam US self-confidence, were probably the high water mark for the Communist enemy. But within a year or two, America's Vietnam Syndrome was eclipsed by Russia's Afghanistan Syndrome, eastern Europe's Solidarity Syndrome, and even China's Modernisation Syndrome.
It is impossible to contemplate a US failure in Iraq with a hope that Islamist terrorism will have passed its high tide. Defeat would mean victory for a mortal enemy. Whether or not you believe Iraq was a real threat under Saddam Hussein, you cannot deny that a US defeat there will make it one now."
There are two things worth saying here. First given the doom-mongers said defeat in Vietnam would lead to Communist world domination and it didn't the obvious conclusion to draw would be that they are also wrong here, not that this time it's different. Second, if it is true that even if Saddam's Iraq wasn't a threat, defeat now would make it one, it would have been nice if the pro-war camp had pointed this out at the time! If wars once got into can only be got out of after an overwhelmingly victory, clearly the bar that has to be met to justify getting into them is considerably higher.
Baker also says that Iraq is not Vietnam because in Vietnam "was no one warning that the US was heading into another Vietnam", and people learn the lessons of history. This is true, but there was no end of people in Vietnam saying this was 'another Korea' (LBJ down) and it didn't help much. This is not to say that Iraq is another Vietnam, in the main because unlike Vietnam there isn't a superpower funding the other side
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posted by Matthew @ 4/15/2004 12:24:00 PM
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