Vietnam/Iraq....lessons unlearned

It's becoming clear that the Bush administration is preparing to cut and run from Iraq and turn it over to the Iranians. The close contest is Ohio's second congressional district was an indication that the Iraq war is rapidly becoming a political drag on the Republican Party so it has become essential that the US declare "victory" in Iraq and pull out before the 2006 mid term elections.

The danger I see is that the loss will be blamed on the incompetence of Rumsfeld's Pentagon and that the real lesson that the occupation could never have been successful will be lost. In Vietnam the government did not understand the nature of the insurgency and tried to paint it as a war between the communism and democracy. In reality it was a war between the Vietnamese and European imperialism. The Vietnam war was initially a war between the Vietnamese and the French. When the Americans took over from the French they became the enemy. Outside of the major cities a majority of the Vietnamese opposed the US presence. The Vietnam war could not have been won.

So how does this relate to Iraq? Juan Cole directs us to this piece by an Iraq War veteran John Bruhns, A View from Iraq From A Soldier. He was in Iraq during and shortly after the invasion and tells the following story.

The invasion was very confusing, and so was the period of time spent in Iraq afterward. At first it did seem as if some of the Iraqi people were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein. But that was only for a short period of time. Shortly after Saddam's regime fell, the Shiite Muslims in Iraq conducted a pilgrimage to Karbala, a pilgrimage prohibited by Saddam while he was in power. As witnessed the Shiite pilgrimage, which was a new freedom that we provided to them, they used the pilgrimage to protest our presence in their country. I watched as they beat themselves over the head with sticks until they bled, and screamed at us in anger to leave their country. Some even carried signs that stated, "No Saddam, No America." These were people that Saddam oppressed; they were his enemies. To me, it seemed they hated us more than him.

As we can see opposition to the foreign occupation was almost immediate and the parallel to the Vietnam should have been obvious at once.

It is safe to say that Robert McNamara was an incompetent Secretary of Defense but the fact remains that the Vietnam war was a popular uprising and it could not have been won. It is also safe to say that Donald Rumsfeld is an incompetent Secretary of Defense and probably did everything wrong after the initial invasion. Immediately after Saddam was over thrown the Iraqi conflict became an uprising against American occupation. Like Vietnam the war in Iraq could not be won, a lesson I fear will not be learned. Lessons unlearned result in repeated mistakes.