Ah, the old Vietnam war 'We would've won it if it wasn't for you meddling kids' defense.
Hardblogger Rick Francona argues that the politicians, specifically John Murtha, are about to tie the hands of our military with statutory limitations on how military funds are spent. He argues that this is the exact same sort of "betrayal" our troops experienced in Vietnam.
For example, for years we were not permitted to bomb North Vietnamese targets north of 20 degrees north latitude – even when the North Vietnamese Air Force built an airfield just north of the line.
Bombing our way to victory? Care to place money on which branch of the military Francona served in?
There are a ton of lessons to be learned by the Vietnam war, of course. Unfortunately Francona expresses none of them in his piece. He could have argued the importance of the Powell Doctrine, or of expressing skepticism towards politicians and wariness of jingoism. Instead he chose to argue a wives's tale. Worse; he chose to invoke that wives's tale in order to attack a straw man.
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This is interesting. Many years ago, I read a professional-type journal piece on teaching history and history textbooks for secondary education (probably thanks to my sister, the history professor):
In it, one of the authors pointedly argued that history textbooks often lacked critical thought - specifically she mentioned the Vietnam War and what she dubbed "The Crabgrass Theory" approach to it; i.e. "Gee, it grew out of control and all of a sudden we realized we needed to pull out!"
This ignores of course Presidential approval (from Kennedy on down), Congressional allocation and approval of the war, and the Pentagon's early PR campaign. All clearly delineated steps that some congress people, as well as some public people protested all along the way.
Rick Francona is forgetting the Gulf of Tonkin lesson.
I see that Francona couldn't resist the robotic "slow bleed" meme to smear Murtha that shows he merely a part of the noise machine and not a real thinker.
If Murtha's plan is a slow bleed, I find it to be a better solution than the "massive hemmorhage" strategy we are using today.
I like this quote:
During that conflict, there were so many conditional rules of engagement and outright restrictions on the use of military power that our forces were not only fighting the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces, but the bureaucracy inside the Beltway as well.
There WERE no rules of engagement in Iraq. People just made it up as they went along...hence Abu-Ghraib, hence looting, hence firing the Army and starting an insurgency. A little more micromanagement from SMART people in the beginning would have gone a long way.
I don't think I am prepared to let the right-wing build the same web of illusions about the Iraq War that they did with Vietnam.
Ladybug-
In it, one of the authors pointedly argued that history textbooks often lacked critical thought - specifically she mentioned the Vietnam War and what she dubbed "The Crabgrass Theory" approach to it; i.e. "Gee, it grew out of control and all of a sudden we realized we needed to pull out!"
Everything happens in a vacuum, don't you know. Nothing is in relation to, or as a consequence of, anything else.
It's funny that history books have been dumbed down thusly since the practice of which is contrary to the central tenets of the study of history. It's a science. We're looking at primary sources and presenting the most compelling theory of what happened. Relativism is only appropriate in those situations where there is no direct recording of what happened.
Pisses me off because that's what I studied in college. Half the books on history written now wouldn't of made it as a college thesis because they're so non-committal.
There WERE no rules of engagement in Iraq. People just made it up as they went along...hence Abu-Ghraib, hence looting, hence firing the Army and starting an insurgency. A little more micromanagement from SMART people in the beginning would have gone a long way.
Still aren't. No hands have been tied as far as I can tell and as you point out.
The ONLY limit I can see is on the intentional, premeditated execution of noncombattants (Haditha.) Is that what Francona is arguing for? I can't help but wonder.
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