What, you haven't read it yet today? |
I am struck once again by the incomparable hold VIETNAM has over some people. They donât seem to realize how the use of this inapt example demonstrates their inability to grasp the nature of new and different conflicts. When I was in college, El Salvador was Vietnam. When I was in Washington, Kuwait was Vietnam. Afghanistan was briefly Vietnam when we hadnât won the war after a week. Itâs Warholian: in the future, all conflicts will be Vietnam for 15 minutes.
Vietnam was an anomaly. Vietnam was perhaps the least typical war weâve ever fought, but somehow itâs become the Gold Standard for wars â because, one suspects, it became inextricably bound up with Nixon, that black hole of human perfidy, and it coincided with the golden glory years of so many old boomers who now clog the arteries of the media and academe. A gross overgeneralization, I know. But itâs a fatal conceit. If youâre always fighting the last war youâll lose the next one. Even worse: Vietnam was several wars ago.
So now weâre fighting Iranian-backed forces in their backyard. This is not a new war. It began the day the âstudentsâ swarmed the US Embassy in Tehran. And Senator Kerry worries that a military response to these thugs will inflame the Muslim world against us? If so, that speaks volumes about the Muslim world he seems to know so much about â by his logic they prefer death and defeat to comity and cooperation.
If thatâs truly the case, then itâs best we face it now. |