Even The Nixon People See It
The significance of this report, Haig says U.S. repeating Vietnam mistake, is not obvious to those who didn’t experience “the unpleasantness” in Southeast Asia.
“Former Nixon adviser thinks forces in Iraq hamstrung by politicians” encapsulates the excuse used by the “true believers” as to why the US was forced to withdraw. The argument was that the military was never given the forces it needed to win the war.
While I personally doubt that Southeast Asia was ever winnable, enough troops to ensure security after Saddam was run out of town was the one big hope for success in Iraq. If we had had the people to protect ourselves and the Iraqis from lawlessness, it would have kept the insurgency at a manageable level.
The looting should never have been allowed. Americans are still being killed with explosives looted from Iraqi dumps because there were no troops to protect them. The people still resent the loss of personal property to the mob in the anarchy that followed the American invasion.
Rumsfield surrounded himself with people who wanted to fight a war, but neglected to have anyone who knew how to win one.
