Max Cleland on Iraq
This, from former Senator Max Cleland, thanks to Juan Cole:
Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President. Sorry you didn't go when you had the chance.
Read Cleland's whole, excellent op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, here.
Barbara Tuchman included Viet Nam as one of the historical case studies of her book, "The March of Folly." Her definition of folly refers to governments that make decisions counter to their national interests, despite active disagreement prior to those decisions, and the existence of feasible alternatives.
If you assume that (1) easy access to plentiful oil; (2) the "remaking" of the Middle East in a new, democratic image; and (3) the reduction of terrorism all represented our chief national interests prior to the war, then we have not only failed on all counts, we have produced conditions that have resulted in quite the opposite.
Given that there was much disagreement about the war beforehand -- including from within the armed forces -- and any number of alternatives were put forward, I would say we have committed folly by any estimation.
The question now is, not whether we have furthered our interests, but whether any good can come out of the situation in Iraq at this point at all.
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