Among this week's apparently unexpected events around the globe is the "overnight" military gains of a fundamentalist group we're calling "ISIS," and the collapse of U.S.-trained and -equipped Iraqi security forces before them.
"Apparently" unexpected because, first, we ignored the signs (not that we could have done much to change things), and second, because this general type of outcome could have been predicted ten years ago. Iraq was a war of choice that we got into on a trumped-up pretext (where are those weapons of mass destruction anyway, now that we need them?) for no better reason than that George Dumbya Bush wanted to get even with Saddam Hussein because he (Saddam) had made a fool of his (W's) daddy.
I hate to say I told you so, (I did, really, but strangely, no one was listening!) - but it was, in 2003, and still is today, so clearly Vietnam all over again. Rather than learn the lessons of that war, we repeated them. One might suppose that G.W. Bush, of all people (given his extensive wartime service in the National Guard) would have taken those lessons to heart.
Oh well - the wages of SIN (self-important, incompetent nincompoops) still haunt our global intervention strategy. Foreign nations are not "ours" to be lost or won, and it's ridiculous to suppose we can construct democratic forms and institutions from outside on a foundation of tribal and religious quicksand. When we do, we destabilize, and Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only countries today who suffer from our efforts.
Does it help that KIAs in Iraq and Afghanistan combined equal only about one-tenth of the casualties from Vietnam? Apparently not, because we have the inevitable bleatings of veterans (not to mention Congresspersons who never served) like Mr. John Nagl, who writes that "this is not what [his] friends fought and died for." Obviously Mr. Nagl deserves an answer.
Which should be: "Stuff it! Enough of your whining!" Today's soldier is a pro, he's paid to kill for his country, so let's keep a sense of proportion here. We all face disappointments in our professional lives. Whether it's me laboring long hours over some foreign policy initiative that never saw the light of day, or maybe the manager of a branch store of a huge retail chain who invests a lot of time in remodeling only to have the corporate owners close down his store and put him out of a job a few months later; the farmer whose crop fails, or ...
Or you, Mr. Nagl. You may be correct, it's unjust, it's tough, it dashes your idealism. Join the club. But it's particularly offensive for you to draw the wrong conclusion, and suggest that the answer is for us to keep a large force indefinitely in Afghanistan. No, sorry. Our initial lightning war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, after 9/11, was politically necessary; Bush called that one right. But the decision to stay after that few months, and build democracy there, was foolish -- the SINs were at work again. Actually, that sign on that aircraft carrier "Mission Accomplished," - so much criticized at the time - was prescient. That's when we ought to have stopped.
Bravo! Standing O for this one!
Posted by: PiedType | June 14, 2014 at 10:30 PM