What better topic for a Memorial Day entry than the U.S.’s current foreign-policy debacle?

In late March, having participated in a peace demonstration in downtown San Francisco earlier that month, I wrote “Peace Now!” In that entry, I lamented the utter lack of passion evident in the peace movement these days and hypothesized that a big difference of then (Vietnam) vs. now (Iraq) is the absence of a draft.

What explanations are there regarding the American public’s apathetic stance toward this war? For although we’re showing an approval rating of our president at the 30% level (according to the latest CBS News/New York Times polling data), and an approval rating of W’s handling of the war in Iraq at 23%, this fiasco continues to go on and on and on. How can this possibly be? This week, the prez signed a bill authorizing more expenditures for the war after the gutless Democrats caved in and, basically, gave him what he wanted in terms of financing. The insanity continues!

Why can’t we just admit that we’re in another Vietnam and why can’t the American public, obviously and massively against our involvement in Iraq, insist that we be quickly extricated from it? The difference in military conscription policies notwithstanding, I believe that the comparisons are striking between the wars in Vietnam and in Iraq. And that we need to leave this ugly, costly and deadly mistake behind us. Now.

Of course, not everybody out there agrees with me. In response to my aforementioned “Peace Now!” entry, a reader wrote in to criticize my views and take me to task for making any such comparisons. Now, since this respondent chose to send an email rather than post a comment here on the blog, I’ll respect the implicit request for anonymity. However, here is a little bit of what this individual wrote:

Iraq and Vietnam are not the same. Not even close. We could leave Vietnam and not worry about the “enemy” coming to our shores. We leave Iraq ...? And don’t give me that crap about Iraq is not the enemy, or Bush Lied, or any other anti-war slogan. We want to hear a Plan B that we can get behind and support, not mere finger pointing and blaming. This is NOT Bush’s war. This is our war. Backed by majority vote in both Houses, and 14 UN Resolutions. The fact we (and everyone else) had bad intelligence dating back to Clinton’s term does not make Bush a liar. We remember how this war started. It didn’t happen the way some are trying to re-write history…

So, we leave Iraq, do we move those troops back to trying to find bin Laden? Do we bring them home and put them on our borders and at our ports? Or is the plan to do nothing? Just wait to see where they are going to hit us next, and then wing it? We’re not criticizing any of these options right now, we just want to know what is Plan B, if we don’t like Plan A.

Well, dear reader, simply put: you have your head up your butt on this one. It’s not only me but many others out there in the world, most much smarter than I, who are comparing our current involvement in Iraq to the quagmire we found ourselves in during Vietnam.

According to what they’re saying, here are some (a sampling only) of the most obvious similarities…

• The lies. The Gulf of Tonkin incident and the subsequent resolution. The certainty about and dangers of WMDs. Both wars started (and continue on) under false pretenses.

• The legality. Both wars were/are illegal acts, undertaken absent declarations of war by Congress and unsupported by international law or world opinion.

• The locations. We did not understand the cultures (including, and especially, the religion factions in Iraq) — and we neither spoke/speak the languages nor knew/know the lay of the land.

• Democracy. Supposedly we fought, and are fighting, to “preserve democracy.” In truth, Vietnam’s elections were staged and controlled by Americans. Iraq has had one election, reportedly casting ballots in order to get the U.S. to leave.

• The noble goals. In Vietnam, we had the crusade against communism and, in Iraq, we have the front for the global war on terrorism. Questionable justifications, both.

• Prisoner abuse and murder. The torture of Vietnamese prisoners in “tiger cages.” Mi Lai. Abu Graib.

• The absence of a front line. In both wars, the “enemy” attacked/attacks anywhere at anytime.

• The goal of “-ization.” In Vietnam, we were assured of the ultimate success of Vietnamization: that we could/would leave when the South Vietnamese troops had been sufficiently trained. These days, we’re told that we’ll be able to withdraw when Iraqi troops are able to fight for their own freedom.

• Expansion. Although Nixon had a secret plan to end the war, by the spring of 1970 the war had expanded into Laos and Cambodia. Today, we have the troop surge.

• The toll on civilians. “These things happen during war”: Here’s a well-known photo from Vietnam. And another (lesser known) one from Iraq.

Of course, there have been many more, and more elegant, comparisons between the two wars. (I’ve included a few references at the end of this article in case you want to do some more reading on this issue.) My point is: we ultimately needed to abandon our involvement in Southeast Asia as our policies had failed miserably and it’s about time we do the same thing with respect to our situation in Iraq.

So, exactly what am I proposing? My one and only Plan A: get the hell out. For example, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has put forth a plan that calls for complete withdrawal (with a timetable of 12-18 months). While I believe that even Edwards’ proposal lacks a certain degree of ambitiousness, I support his specific plan for removing us from this terrible, terrible mistake. Let’s declare peace and leave. Immediately.

Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Photograph by Frank Barratt - Getty Images.

A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now.

[Happy Christmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon, 1971] 

Suggested reading:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0501-32.htm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6933739

http://www.progress.org/2004/fpif48.htm

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07112003.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15821138/

http://cunningrealist.blogspot.com/2005/06/historys-rhyme.html