Living abroad (part III)
I took the time to build some good friendships while I was in Vietnam. We'd go out at night for dinner or a beer and we'd talk about much of the same stuff I might talk about here in the good ole US of A... work, sports, girls... politics was always a bit risque... but really whatever came to mind.
Occasionally though, the war would surface. And of course, I always asked the $69,000 question:
Why did America lose?
There were varied answers, but there certainly was a trend.
The most common answer for why we lost?
America came to be seen as an occupier. At that point in time, the south Vietnamese began asking themselves a basic question:
Would we rather be ruled by foreigners who we hate? Or by our own brothers who we hate?
At that point, the answer was simple for them. The south Vietnamese gradually turned on the foreigners who they hated and America left on April 30, 1975.
I feel we should ask ourselves this same question about Iraq. Are we seen as occupiers or as liberators? If we're seen as liberators, we can turn the corner in Iraq. But if we're seen as occupiers, we must turn the corner or we will never achieve the goal of "a stable Iraq."
And, of course, the timely question:
Will a troop surge cement feelings of liberation? Or galvanize hatred toward occupiers?
Thoughts? Comments?
Tim White
3 comments:
I believe a troop surge will resolve nothing. In order to make a real difference we would need to commit probably closer to 100,000 troops and allow them to take the gloves off and use overwhelming brute force to root out and slaughter the terrorists. It won't happen because politically it cant be supported and the majority of Americans dont , unfortunately have the stomach for it.
We need to make it clear to the Iraqi leadership that it is time for them to assume responsibility. This can occur through increase training and logistical and financial support to the Iraqi government. We also need to realize that what needs to occur there is what occurred in Bosnia. They need to create a seperate but equal government and community where the various sects essentially do not cohabitate but share equally in Government. Its working in Bosnia, where ethnic hatred has a far worse history than in Iraq.
So how do you increase training without sending more people over there?
You donmt need to send 20,000 plus troops to increase training. There are enough troops to get it done right now. What isnt happenign is the Iraqi's are taking enough responsibility, they are relying too mucn on the US military. we can still supply training, logisitics and air and ground support without the current troop levels.
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