Webloggin » The Lessons of Vietnam

Over the years there has been much discussion over the lessons we learned from our craven withdrawal and defeat in Vietnam. The lessons I learned were pretty simple: (1) Don’t go into a war unless you intend to win it. “Limited war” is an oxymoron. (2) Don’t go into a war unless you have clearly defined what constitutes victory and how you are going to get out again (the fact that we hadn’t done this is why I opposed our invasion of Iraq to begin with).

But it now appears the liberals in America have learned a different, and quite dangerous, lesson. Liberals learned that if things go wrong in war we can simply leave and that will be the end of it. Oh, sure, our allies are destroyed and we lose the war, but the war is over and America goes on as if nothing had happened. I think that’s what the liberals believe will happen if we announce our defeat and cravenly withdraw from Iraq.

Liberals really don’t understand that our enemies in Vietnam wanted Vietnam (well, our direct enemies; I don’t even want to get into the domino theory). Our enemies in Iraq want the entire world. The liberals really do believe we can just walk away! No wonder they only argue for withdrawal, without fully considering the consequences of that withdrawal. They don’t understand that there are any.

I suppose the question this raises is how we help the liberals to understand that Islamic jihad is not a war we can simply walk away from. If 9/11 (you remember, that thing that happened before we invaded Iraq) didn’t make the point, what will?

[Discuss this article with Don Quixote over at Bookworm Room...]