Democrats hope Iraq turns into another Vietnam

John Kerry and the Democrats would love to hang the Iraq War around Bush's neck like his personal Vietnam. "Redeployment," code for retreat, would do just that. If we win in Iraq, it will further highlight the abject failure of the Johnson administration to win in Vietnam. If we lose in Iraq, it supports the preposterous claim that Vietnam was an unwinable war. Despite the historic successes in Iraq, the incomperable low number of casualties, and the steady progress of the Iraqi government, Democrats want to defeat America in Iraq like they defeated America in Vietnam. It took a decade before we had trained the South Vietnamese to defend themselves, and they did well until the Democratic Congress cut off their funding and condemned our strongest supporters and millions of others to death by execution.

I don't think that story will stay at that link, so I'll quote a segment from James Taranto here:

'D' Is for Defeat
John "Botched Joke" Kerry resurfaced late yesterday with an email appeal to Democratic loyalists (despite being strictly nonpartisan, we're on the list for informational purposes) to vote today. He said:

This is our chance to take the power to lead America out of the Bush Republicans' hands. Winning means raising the minimum wage. Winning means moving towards health care for all, starting with every child in America. Winning means forcing an end to the disastrous war in Iraq, and getting our heroes home.

"The disastrous war in Iraq" refers to the one Kerry voted for four years ago. "Our heroes" refers to the people who, Kerry suggested last week, are not smart or educated enough to avoid getting "stuck in Iraq."

And doesn't "forcing an end" mean American defeat? For an answer to that, let's turn to a Washington Post report from Iraq:

For the U.S. troops fighting in Iraq, the war is alternately violent and hopeful, sometimes very hot and sometimes very cold. It is dusty and muddy, calm and chaotic, deafeningly loud and eerily quiet.

The one thing the war is not, however, is finished, dozens of soldiers across the country said in interviews. And leaving Iraq now would have devastating consequences, they said. . . .

"Take us out of that vacuum--and it's on the edge now--and boom, it would become a free-for-all," said Lt. Col. Mark Suich, who commands the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment just south of Baghdad. "It would be a raw contention for power. That would be the bloodiest piece of this war." . . .

"Pulling out now would be as bad or worse than going forward with no changes," [Capt. Jim] Modlin said. "Sectarian violence would be rampant, democracy would cease to exist, and the rule of law would be decimated. It's not 'stay the course,' and it's not 'cut and run' or other political catchphrases. There are people's lives here. There are so many different dynamics that go on here that a simple solution just isn't possible."

Kerry's "simple solution" was tried once before--in Vietnam. The Vietnamese paid a heavy price, and America still pays one. We've noted before al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri's observation that "the aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam--and how they ran and left their agents--is noteworthy." The Middle East Media Research Institute reports that Hezbollah honcho Hassan Nasrallah is also taking inspiration from America's defeat in Vietnam. Quoting Nasrallah:

The Americans will gather their belongings and leave this region - the entire region. They have no future whatsoever in our region. They will leave the Middle East, and the Arab and Islamic worlds, like they left Vietnam. I advise all those who place their trust in the Americans to learn the lesson of Vietnam, and to learn the lesson of the South Lebanese Army with the Israelis, and to know that when the Americans lose this war--and lose it they will, Allah willing--they will abandon them to their fate, just like they did to all those who placed their trust in them throughout history.

What Nasrallah is hoping for is what John Kerry and some of his fellow Democrats are already advocating.

In Vietnam the Viet Cong were destroyed as a force during the Tet Offensive. Unfortunately every time we've had the chance to destroy the Mahdi army, politics has overruled military strategy, and the Mahdi army continues it's violence every day. That has to stop.