I am feeling old. As I read about the war, I seem to be asking myself more and more, "Which war is this again? Vietnam or Iraq?"
We are fighting a war against an "Invisible enemy," one who blends into the civilian population that we are trying to protect. This enemy goes to lengths of brutality that seem impossible to combat. Remember the children lining up for candy only to be killed by a car bomb? See the reports of the dead found "executed" inside the nation's capitol? How do you convince people to stand up to such a foe?
The supporters of the war tell us that we could win the war if only the Liberal press would stop reporting only the bad news, weakening our spirit.
A vocal minority opposes the war with demonstrations, which garner much publicity. The opposition draws from the youth of America, particularly from college campuses.
Much of the news seems to resonate for me with events from decades past:
Item 1: US soldiers kill "innocent civilians" after a fellow soldier is killed in an ambush, events are concealed by the US military. How can Haditha NOT evoke memories of My Lai? I don't want to rush to judgment about Haditha, not all the facts are in, but when a war is fought by 19 and 20-year olds, pushed beyond their limits by a surreal atmosphere and seeing their friends killed, when the lines between "friendlies" and insurgents are blurred at best, such incidents are inevitable.
Item 2: New reports came out this week about the death of Pat Tillman, the former football star and US soldier killed by friendly fire. Actually, very little seems new, the press is just rehashing what was already known. Pat Tillman was the shining star of the war on Terror and, details of his death aside, he remains a hero for his willingness to sacrifice his athletic stardom for what he believed. But his death is ironic at best. After a hard-fought battle, he and his fellows were standing up and stretching, when reinforcements arrived. The new soldiers opened fire on Pat Tillman's squad, even though some of those reinforcements recognized that they were fellow Rangers. We now know that he, Pat Tillman, did everything he could to signal his fellow troopers not to shoot, including setting off smoke grenades. While some were yelling to stop, one soldier manning a .50 caliber machine gun continued to fire. Pat Tillman's last words were "Cease fire! Friendlies! I am Pat (expletive) Tillman damn it!" And then the machine gun bullets tore through him.
Item 3: We no longer hear much about the struggle to capture "hearts and minds." We can't point to Afghanistan as a success story, not after the recent riots. There was a car accident, followed by a riot with civilians chanting "Death to America!" US soldiers fired into the crowd. Twenty are dead. The President of Afghanistan condemns the US reaction. Afghanistan wants to bring the soldiers to trial. We refuse. So much for the shining democracy of the Middle East.
I could go on and on, but why belabor the point? When this whole thing started, the President assured us that the "Mission was clear." Is it? Is my eyesight failing, because I don't see it? The Afghanis hate us, but if we stop supporting the current regime, the Taliban will be back. After Haditha and Abu Ghraib, do you think that Iraq will be less of a haven for terrorists when we leave?
I don't know, maybe every generation needs a "Dirty Little War." We certainly seem to have one.