What most pisses me off about Hadley's comment is the idea that the United States cannot let any state fall into that level of disorder that it might be called a "safe haven for terrorists." He then alludes that the territories of the United States were not threatened directly during the time of Vietnam, but that the stakes in Iraq are greater because this time, defeat could mean attacks on the Homeland. He is wrong on all of this.Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser, said a key difference is that the stakes are higher with Iraq.
"I remember a debate about what would happen if the United States left Vietnam and there were discussions about dominos, some which fell, some which didn't fall," he said of the view by some that other Southeast Asian states would fall, one by one, to communism if Vietnam was lost.
"But nobody, I think, felt that it would result in a clear and present danger to the territory of the United States," Hadley continued. "And I think one of the things that's different is I think most men and women in America believe that it is important that we not fail in Iraq, that the consequences of an Iraq that descended into chaos would be an Iraq that would be a safe haven for terrorists."
First of all, yes, Iraq could become this "safe haven." It already is one. There are plenty of regions of the world that, for better or worse, the collective World has let slip into that "failed state" status. See: Somalia, Sudan. In most cases, we have done nothing about it. So why now, with Iraq, do we suddenly deem it necessary to spend our blood and treasure at (truly) insane rates?
According to Mr. Hadley, it's because of what would happen in this failed state of Iraq: a spawning of Terrorist Laboritories, all filled with mad scientists working day and night to plan and execute Terror Attacks against the Homeland. Surely, Mr. Hadley believes, the Attacks would be relentless. Which, unlike Vietnam, of course (thinks Mr. Hadley), when no such threat on the Homeland existed. September 11, 2001 was a psychological blow against the United States - it made us think, "It could end for me. Any moment. Any time." No such psychological blow had struck the nation several years before the initiation of American involvement in Vietnam. Oh. Wait. Mr. Hadley, what about a little something called THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. Think that that played into the minds of any Americans as they saw their soldiers battling those damn commies that had attacked in Korea and (almost) in Cuba. But what happened? Eventually, more and more people started realizing the whole thing was bullshit, that there was no way American involvement was helping anything get resolved. And they got mad. Eventually, they held people accountable. And they threw some of the bums out. They didn't get them all the first time, but they kept going. And they continued on until every single one of them was no longer in power.
dedicated to Mr. Hadley and Joseph Lieberman (CFL-CT)
¶ 10:49 PM
