1968 Redux

Echoes of Vietnam in Iraq--especially from the press.

by Robert McFarlane - June 10th, 2007 - Wall Street Journal (Opinion Journal)

Thirty-nine years ago, halfway through my second tour in Vietnam, the Tet Offensive was launched by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, who were soundly defeated on the battlefield. Two measures of that battle--both relevant to the situation in Iraq today--stand out for me. The first relates to an important lesson U.S. forces had learned after three years of conflict: the vital role of "winning hearts and minds" of the local population. The second concerns the power of the press to affect our ability to sustain violent warfare.

During the Vietnam "war" the press consistently opposed America. They were traitors to our nation and its troops then, and they are traitors to our nation and its troops now. The difference however is in the risks to our nation.

Though there were a number of people who believed in those days that we were at war with communism, and that loss in Vietnam would encourage the communists in the Soviet Union to continue their goal of world conquest, the press simply did not buy it. Today there are a great number of people who believe that there is no war against Iraq. They believe we are, as we were in Vietnam, supporting one side in a war for control of one country. They reject we are in a war of much greater magnitude.

This time, even more than we were in Vietnam, we really are at war with a greater enemy. That enemy is Islamofascism.

The press makes light of that concept. They ridicule George W. Bush's "war on terror" label. They have convinced themselves that we should leave Iraq and let the two sides fight among themselves without our involvement. Since most evidence is that after our departure Iraq will go back to control of the Baathists, the press is really arguing that the socialists who practiced such evil tyranny before should be on top again. The press is socialist and has no problem with Saddam Hussein or Fidel Castro or anyone who espouses socialism being in control. They do not believe that leaving Iraq will result in the militants against us flowing here to America to continue the war.

What makes the risks so much greater this time is that the "greater power" we are fighting is a group of maniacs, that unlike the Soviet Union, really are prepared to use nuclear bombs to get what they want. If we lose this war, the consequences will be devastating.