Iraq, a Vietnam deja vu?

Former US Secretary of Defense, Robert MacNamara expounds "know thine enemy". In furthering this concept, it’s troubling to see the parallels that can be found between the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

In essence, the US not only attacked the wrong enemy, Iraq; but still does not understand the motives behind his enemy, the Muslim jihadist.

Mcnamara

 

Robert McNamara was Secretary of Defense for seven years with
presidents JF Kennedy and LB Johnson. Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson
wrote,

"Except for General Marshall I do not know of any
department head who, during the half century I have observed government in Washington, has so profoundly enhanced the position,
power and security of the United States as Mr. McNamara."

During his tenure he
was a significant player in the Cuban missile crisis; although, most of his
time would be consumed by the Vietnam War. He would resign his post to move to
the World Bank; on disagreeing with the president, with McNamara urging to put
an end to this war.

Recently, an 85 year old McNamara was interviewed and underscored the
importance of understanding the enemy’s motives, or what he called “empathizing
with the enemy.”

As a positive example, he recalled the events of the Cuban missile crisis. Or,
how close, the world had been to a nuclear third world war.

As it happened, the
information at hand was limited and contradictory. The Russians had sent two messages to the White House: the first, open to
negotiations; the second, a stern warning that if the US should invade Cuba, they would be attacked.

Faced with these facts, the US
military gained in their argument to strike first; including Russia. The superiority of the US nuclear arsenal, at the time 17 to 1, would
allow in the final aftermath balance, a favorable count of survivors for the US.

Fortunately, Ambassador Thomson had befriended premier Khrushchev during his stay in Russia and knew him well. He proposed to stay on the negotiating path; he
suggested giving Khrushchev a way out, the image that it was Khrushchev who had stopped
the invasion of Cuba.
It worked.

The Vietnam War is the negative example. McNamara recalls his visit to Vietnam in 1995
and his interview with the Vietnamese leadership. He was surprised to realize
that the Northern Vietnamese had mainly fought the war with the US because they
wanted their independence, that they had sworn not to ever again be colonized
as with the French, and that the Chinese had been their natural historic
enemies.

According to McNamara, if this information had been known at the time, the war
could’ve been avoided; agreements would’ve been reached to satisfy the
Vietnamese longed independence and US aspirations.

In Iraq’s case, we also have
a situation where the US
government has failed to recognize the motives of their enemy, which are exploited
by Muslim terrorists playing on the resentment of many Muslims who feel they
have been swindled out of their oil riches by western oil companies. In essence
–to extricate the presence of infidels from their territories.

So, after 911, the US
government mistakes its enemy. Saddam Hussein was only bluffing his neighbors
into believing he was more powerful with his WMD charade. But the error,
furthers Osama Bin Laden’s US damage, by involving the US in an invasion of Muslim territories, deeply
alienating the Muslim world against the perceived US invader.

Such is the alienation, that the Spanish train bombings have not been linked to
Bin Laden. It would seem that this is a new terrorist spore that
sprouted independently in the fertile European Muslim quarters, as a
consequence of the US
invasion of Iraq.

What a mess, Mr. Bush!

For further reading, I recommend "The Next Attack" by Benjamin and Simon.

Also, please visit Stiglitz’s commentary on the true cost of the Iraq war to realize the scope of the economic blunder…