[lit-ideas] How to Win in Iraq
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 01:19:59 -0400
An interesting 8-page essay by Melvin Laird on how to proceed.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20051101faessay84604-p0/melvin-r-laird/iraq-learning-the-lessons-of-vietnam.html
[excerpt from page 7]
President Bush does not have the luxury of waiting for the
international community to validate his policies in Iraq. But we do
have the lessons of Vietnam. In Vietnam, the voices of the
"cut-and-run" crowd ultimately prevailed, and our allies were
betrayed after all of our work to set them on their feet. Those same
voices would now have us cut and run from Iraq, assuring the failure
of the fledgling democracy there and damning the rest of the Islamic
world to chaos fomented by extremists. Those who look only at the
rosy side of what defeat did to help South Vietnam get to where it
is today see a growing economy there and a warming of relations with
the West. They forget the immediate costs of the United States'
betrayal. Two million refugees were driven out of the country,
65,000 more were executed, and 250,000 were sent to "reeducation
camps." Given the nature of the insurgents in Iraq and the
catastrophic goals of militant Islam, we can expect no better there.
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