As you know, or may not know, a group with apparent links to al-Qaeda has taken over Fallujah, Iraq. Promptly the predictable political game began as to who “lost” Fallujah, and maybe Iraq. I remember that game well.
I remember the game well because I was sitting in some barracks in the USA when President Nixon announced that we had achieved “peace with honor” at the Paris peace talks between the governments of North & South Viet Nam, the USA, and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (Viet Cong) and that we had reached a set of accords.
I also remember how the accords were received in the barracks as we watched the TV announcement. They were received in an unprintable fashion, particularly by those who had already served over there.
The USA pulled out of Viet Nam and by 1975 the government of South Viet Nam fell. Today, there is only the nation of Viet Nam. For the USA, there are only the veterans who remember, particularly those that we serve at the VA who cannot forget. The rest of the country, particularly those born afterward, only remember Viet Nam as an ill-advised adventure by the USA.
There is no guarantee the current “democratic” Iraqi government will survive. It may. But, already I have read more than one veteran of the Iraq War wondering what their service meant. That brought back memories, for that is exactly the same question as those who served back then were asking.
It may very well be that someday the Iraq War will be this generation’s Viet Nam. It may be that for the next several years politicians will use Iraq in a blame game of “who lost Iraq,” just like the game of “who lost Viet Nam” was played. And, just like back then, there will be those who will claim that we did not expend enough money and blood, and will hide their faces from recognizing that we had already had previous experience with what happens when we go in to try to engage in nation-building.
It may very well be that a democratic Iraq will survive and Fallujah will be retaken. I hope so. But, even in that democratic Iraq, we have heard more than once of the government officials who are very happy that we left.
Regardless of which government survives, it is doubtful that memories of us will be golden and that we will be remembered as liberators. I hope we learn our lesson. I fear we will not.
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