Andrew Sullivan: Iraq is like Vietnam replayed in reverse
Sunday Times | April 11, 2004 | Andrew Sullivan
Posted on 04/11/2004 2:34:18 AM PDT by ejdrapes
Comment: Andrew Sullivan:
Iraq is like Vietnam replayed in reverseThere’s no question that the violence in Iraq this past week has rattled Washington — and indeed ordinary Americans. A war that seems to pit US marines against the people they are supposed to be liberating is not a narrative that most Americans want to follow. Senator Ted Kennedy used the V-word: “We’re facing a quagmire in Iraq, just as we faced a quagmire in Vietnam.” Even Bill O’Reilly, the conservative television host, opined of the silent majority of Shi’ites: “If these people won’t help us, we need to get out in an orderly matter.”
So is this indeed Vietnam? Has the script already been written? In one sense, yes it has. The Vietnam analogy is precisely and entirely the point of the recent uprisings by displaced Sunnis and the Iranian-backed militia of Moqtada al-Sadr.
Everything the insurgents in Iraq are doing hinges on what they believe the American response will be...
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