Iraq, Day 1,354 and Counting
We all know that the Iraq war passed a pretty sad milestone last week, as just about every news report noted, US troops have been fighting that war longer than they fought WWII. I honestly don't know what to say on this score other than it's sad and depressing news on top of sad and depressing news. Republicans who couldn't stop running to the WWII well for comparisons before that date are now crying foul when this factoid is brought up.
Our leaders so often seem unable to learn from history, yet they seized on analogies with a more popular war, one that had not just one, but two victories. It's an easy sell. If Sadaam = Hitler, then we know we will win. If the US/British alliance of 2003 is the same as that of WWII, then we know we will succeed.
But Sadaam isn't Hitler, The US/UK alliance isn't the same, and Iraq isn't Germany, Japan or Italy. As I'm sure Bush & crew will be grateful to hear, it isn't Vietnam either.
But does that mean we abandon any hope of learning from past conflicts to find a way out of this one? I pray it does not. That those around the Bush/Cheney isolation booth find a way to break through the self-delusion in time.
Our leaders so often seem unable to learn from history, yet they seized on analogies with a more popular war, one that had not just one, but two victories. It's an easy sell. If Sadaam = Hitler, then we know we will win. If the US/British alliance of 2003 is the same as that of WWII, then we know we will succeed.
But Sadaam isn't Hitler, The US/UK alliance isn't the same, and Iraq isn't Germany, Japan or Italy. As I'm sure Bush & crew will be grateful to hear, it isn't Vietnam either.
But does that mean we abandon any hope of learning from past conflicts to find a way out of this one? I pray it does not. That those around the Bush/Cheney isolation booth find a way to break through the self-delusion in time.
posted by Anonymous at 10:41 AM
2 Comments:
is it not learning- or refusing to learn? taking the worst parts of history and repeating them is what seems to be happening here.
Frank Rich said today he thinks the President is in the same delusional Twilight Zone over Iraq as Woodrow W. was in trying to push the Versailles Treaty against every conceivable odd. Lyndon Johnson micromanaging the Vietnam bombing is also brought into the comparison, as is President Reagan mentally "checking out" when confronted with evidence of his role in Iran-Contra. that's some company there!
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