Flashback to the Present

Thirty five years after drawing down American forces in Vietnam, America looks well on its way to doing the same in Iraq. Plans are in the works to reduce US troops from165,000 to100,000 by the end of 2006. BushCheney has long claimed that American policy would follow facts on the ground. And it appears that a compliant military with little understanding of Iraqi society and culture is creating the facts needed to reduce the number of ground forces, according to a recent article in the Financial Times. Just in time for the November elections. Who says BushCheney isn’t listening? The growing concern about War Without End is forcing his hand.

Of course, that does not mean an end to the war. BushCheney is dug well into Iraq. A massive bunker-like embassy combined with unrelenting aerial bombing will allow the US to continue the war in a different form without all the messy American body parts (we can largely ignore Iraqi bodies) that have undermined the support for the war created by the Republican Noise Machine back in 2003. BushCheney knows he needs to show “success” so he will make it up. Hell, lying and dissembling have worked well for him all these years, why stop now?

This sounds like Vietnam where we drew down ground forces in favor of massive bombing, substantial logisitical assistance, financial support and backstage influence to continue fighting. War by different means. What sounds even more like Vietnam to me are the Financial Times quotes from American soldiers about living in the “United States of Iraq” and their hopes for drawdown and less risky duty. The “United States of Vietnam” would pretty accurately describe my experience in that country; I never left American culture although I knew for sure that I was in a wholly different place (and did get to see that beautiful jungle, mountain and forest) . The US military created its own environment in Vietnam that was largely cut off from the country we were saving. American isolation in Iraq sounds even more complete.

But the hope for salvation, for reprieve from this tedious duty is what really captures my attention.

“...There is a sense that with the final lap of the political handover completed with December's election and, even more importantly, with the forthcoming US congressional elections in November, a substantial part of the army is on its way home - for good.
One staff major in a combat unit, who is about to head home after completing his second tour in Iraq, is pretty certain he will not have to come back. ‘By 2007, when we are up for the next rotation, we will not be here any more, at least not as extensively,’ he says....”

In 1971, American troop strength dropped by half–from about 200,000 to100,000. I came in-country in December 1970 hearing that my tour would be cut short as the US withdrew forces. The 101st Airborne Division went home in March. So did two-thirds of my unit, the 1st Cavalry Division. But The Cav left me behind in a brigade that absorbed troops too new in-country to rotate back to The World with their units. Nothing changed for us; we stayed in the field, built firebases, patrolled and took casualties. But possibilities still existed. Rumor was that my unit would pull back to the big base at Bien Hoa, which was a veritable Oz of possibilities for safety, comfort and entertainment compared to infantry patrol. It never happened; I made it to Bien Hoa as company clerk but my unit was still in the field when I left in December 1971. Even as I refused to believe that early rumor, though, I welcomed the hope. I can empathize with soldiers hoping to forgo another round of combat. Hope was my final refuge in combat.

In1965 Vermont Senator George Aiken recommended that the US declare victory in Vietnam and bring our troops home. Neither Lyndon Johnson nor Richard Nixon paid attention to that idea. BushCheney declared victory in May 2003 but missed the chance to bring the troops home. Now he is declaring victory in slow motion, hoping that fewer boots on the ground will mean fewer body bags to remind Americans of what their government is doing in a foreign country. The death and destruction will continue, adding to the moral and ethical debt we owe Iraq even as it destroy’s our credibility to pay that debt. BushCheney’s promises to the Iraqi people were as false as their promises to their countrymen.

While BushCheney distracts Americans with “Mission Accomplished, the Sequel”, war by other means goes on. Americans who care about this nation’s honor and credibility should not believe that lower troop numbers and fewer casualties mean we are doing anything different in Iraq or that we have somehow satisfied our obligation to that nation. Only the means will change.

Don’t get your hopes up.