What Was/Is The Prize?
Avedon Carol at The Sideshow cuts to the chase on Vietnam, and by implication Iraq, and asks the real question:
It would be nice if we could somehow force them into a real debate in which we get to ask them just what exactly it is they think we lost in ‘Nam, and what we would have won if we’d stayed. What prize would have been worth thousands more names added to that wall?
Exactly so, what do the supporters of that war and this one think the United States will gain? We aren’t safer, as all objective measures of terrorism say it is increasing. Our economy is in the tank and it will take generations to pay off the debts that are financing it. The Iraqis are not apt to make favorable deals with the people who invaded their country and killed thousands upon thousands of their people, and are apt to negate any deals that have already been made.
Why did we invade Iraq, and why are we still there?
Al Qaeda “won” when the US invaded a Muslim country for no reason. They aren’t going to get an additional prize when we leave.
2 comments
The answer they always say is “a free and democratic South Vietnam” when you ask that question, just as they always say “a free and democratic Iraq” when you ask them what’s the end game in Iraq. Thing is, that’s not a military objective. A military objective is, say, the defeat of an enemy force and the capitulation of the government which fielded said force. Furthermore, it is an objective that has nothing to do with America and Americans. Okay, so you have a free and democratic South Vietnam or Iraq. How’s that help America and Americans? I thought I was paying my taxes to the government of the UNITED STATES, not to the government of IRAQ? I want my government to be taking care of me and mine, not some folks overseas who can darn well put together their own government!
– Badtux the Buchananite Penguin
Oh, yes, free to elect democratically the government the US chooses, unlike those ungrateful terrorist voters in Palestine, Lebanon, and Venezuela.
The problem with having free and democratic elections in Iraq is that they would result in a pro-Iranian Shi’ite government that would kick the crap out of the Sunnis, and the Sunnis and their supporters know it.
I still maintain that one of the biggest mistakes made was not arranging for a formal surrender with the existing Iraqi government, which would have provided a framework as existed in Germany and Japan after WWII with whom the US could work.
Going in a firing everyone was not exactly the kind of thinking that gets you a place on the big bus. There was too much gratuitous destruction of infrastructure – physical, political, social, and economic – for anything other than a disaster to ensue.