Topic: Iraq War
Of course the surface parallels of Vietnam to Iraq have gotten considerable play in the Mainstream Media, and those pundits on the Left who are the loudest.
But reality can be Like an onion, with multiple layers.
Peel down one layer. It has been said that by going into Iraq, we have forgotten the lessons of the Past, of Vietnam. But what was one of the most important lessons of Vietnam. The lesson that lead to the US withdrawing? It is this, a War where the enemy has sanctuary, is fought at a severe disadvantage.
Iraq, though some might Like to ignore it for a generation was one of the Major supporters and sanctuaries of International Terrorism. After the Fall of the World Trade Towers, the US though we had ignored it, realized, or many of us did that we were at War with International Forces of Terrorism.
We took steps to reduce their major areas of support and sanitary, Afghanistan and Iraq. From that viewpoint we DID use the lessons of the Past in Vietnam, to define and direct the War against our latest enemy.
But Like an onion there are deeper layers. What WAS Vietnam to the United States? It was the defining concept of an entire generation.
Despite the fact that the War was initiated by a Democratic President and enlarged to its largest extent by yet another Democratic President, the Left has rewritten History to make it a Republican Presidents War.
Like their Fathers before them an entire generation of Democratic Politicians emerged from the War and used its issues to wrest political control from what they viewed as the Reactionary Past.
History advances in cycles. The World War Two generation emerged and took the reins of political power for an entire generation and then subsided and were overwhelmed by the newer generation.
That paradigm defined the last 30 years of American Politics and Like their fathers before them the Vietnam era politicians waved the bloody shirt of their War, just as their fathers had waved the bloody shirt of World War Two.
All these years, an entire generation, the Vietnam Paradigm has been the road to Political Power.
But there is a new generation and now a New Paradigm.
Yes Iraq is the 21st Century Vietnam, but not in the sense that the Newest Old Guard realizes. It is a new Paradigm shift in America's Psyche.
Like their Fathers before them they have not seen the
Winds of Change, they continue to wave the Bloody Shirt of Vietnam, not realizing that is now THEY who are the Old Guard hanging on to the Tiller of the Reactionary Past.
And Like those they replaced they will be replaced.
History does repeat itself.
Posted by ky/kentuckydan
at 6:42 AM CDT
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Updated: Sunday, 3 June 2007 6:11 AM CDT
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Updated: Sunday, 3 June 2007 6:11 AM CDT