Mr. Gelernter, I would suggest to you:
-Iraq is Vietnam- Just a new theater of operations, which I'm sure would have been expanded by now into Syria/Iran?, North Korea?, Venezuela? (Probably not North Korea - no oil or resources for Carlyle or Halliburton to feed on). Sorry guys, all you've got to feast on thus far is the over 2000 body count.
The reason we have not escalated is not for a lack of funding - what's another half a trillion dollars of debt piled on top of the multi-trillions ripped off us and our progeny for decades to come. No, we haven't invaded or bombed into short-term submission any other part of the 'axis' only because we don't have the 'boots' or hardware required to do so. The flower-strewn cake-walk, the jubilant reception by the Iraqis of Chalabi and his cohort which was anticipated by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz (CRW) never happened. And now we are stuck. No, we haven't moved on to that next level of insanity.... only because we can't...we have broken our military....we have abused it....we; the "Americans"...we have sent our military into battle, we have put them in-harms-way under-manned and ill-equipped - both in hardware and training. Now we are once again bogged down....just a different quaqmire. I recall a news item some few days before our forces reached the Bagdad airport...Comical Ali (remember him), he was reporting that the American forces were bogged down in some swamps or such thing out side of town, it was ludicrous...then. Maybe he was prescient or something, that's where we are at now, bogged -down. Comical Ali...great guy..he gave me many laughs during those rosy days. Wow!!!...that was a long time ago...yeah, great days, we owned it all...we had tours of Saddams palaces, we flew Chalabi etal. in and got set to 'install' them as the "New Deal". (speaking of New Deals...remember the New Deal...Now there was a President...as a peace-time President, he got us out of the depression and it wasn't done by means of looting the treasury and giving it to the wealthy. We built the infrastructure of this country, PWA (Grand Coulee Dam and TVA), WPA (8 million jobs), CWA (4 million jobs), CCC(1 dollar a day, room & board and job-training).
He was a war-time President too, remember World War Two, we fought that war, we "Americans". We won it and we are proud of it....there is nothing to be proud of about this quagmire...choke on the word Mr. Gelenter and then call your buddy Jeff Gannon for some comfort and solace. But, I digress, as they say (bad habit). McClellan reminds me of Comical Ali...ludicrous except that these days I don't get that same rosy glow, ...sort of a cold-chill, to the bone. Over-all though, Fleischer did a better job, perhaps in his day he had an easier 'house' to play to.
In April 1975, all remaining American diplomats and advisors were pulled out in a frantic, starvation-budget withdrawal. South Vietnam collapsed. "The decrease in American aid had made it impossible for Saigon troops to carry out their combat and force-development plans," North Vietnam's army chief of staff coolly explained.
...."...a frantic, starvation-budget withdrawal."... I remember the choppers hovering over the top of the compound with the people below desperately clutching at the skids. What do you think Mr. Gelenter?...Will we see things like that when we leave Iraq, be it in 2006 or 2026? Do you realize what our "foot-print" consists of in Iraq today compared to a year or so ago...we're hunkered down in the various Green Zones, waiting for our Dien-Bien-Phu or Khe-San. Or will it be Somalia '93 revisited? Or will it be a flower-strewn parade. You tell me Mr. Gelenter.
MANY OBSERVERS have noticed that Democrats of the left speak of Iraq as another Vietnam. Few have explained why: Because Democrats of the left want Iraq to be another Vietnam. Not that they took pleasure in Vietnamese suffering, but they rejoiced in the left-wing power surge that transformed the United States in the aftermath. Naturally, they hope to repeat that experience: to humiliate Republicans, moderate Democrats and the military by pinning the label "bloody failure" on another foreign war.
As I said; Iraq is Viet Nam. A futile endeavour...you should be humilitated. It is a "bloody failure".
Iraq is nothing like Vietnam, and the public knows it. In the recent referendum, 63% of Iraqi voters cast ballots. Each vote screamed defiance at terrorism and defeatism. Each vote told the world that terrorism will lose and democracy will win, that Iraqis trust the United States to help protect them against vengeful insurgents bent on murdering whoever dares to hope and care and vote.
"...and the public knows it." I assume that you mean "Americans" when you say 'the public'. How do you devine what the public feels based the Iraqi referendum turn-out numbers?. Take a look at some numbers here at home...Oh!! I forgot, you guys don't pay any attention to polls and such.
Polls show American uneasiness about the war. Naturally. The fighting is dirty and dangerous.
"...dirty and dangerous." And made more so by the lack of "boots" and hardware. Inadequate boots, lack of armor, on and on. We've been there for a long time and families are still finding it necessary to equip their loved ones with the necessities for survival. During WWII, they sent Zippo's and fun stuff...not body armor.
Sen. Leahy thinks that he can smell another Vietnam.
I know what I smell...the stench of this mis-begotten enterprise, the rot of Abu-Ghraib, Gitmo, all of it. Wrap it in god and the Flag, throw in some apple pie and the stink is still there.
Following the Scalia/Thomas coup I recall the Republicans running around saying " We won the election, get used to it." To you I now say; It's a quagmire, get used to it.
