Yes, and WWII was about getting our way in Germany.
If your point is you wish the U.S. would be Canada, perhaps we could if we had the Canadian military protecting us for 50 years.
I was at a client in Toronto recently and said, "I think it would be great to have the Canadian social system and the American military for defense." and my Canadian friend said, "Yeah, that's what we have." <s>
The Vietnam war was about the proxy wars that were prevalent in the Cold War. Our effort should have been in Hungary in '56, not Indochina in the 60s.
Iraq is not about getting our way. It is about making a choice from a list of bad alternatives. Great nations do not have the luxury of standing back to let others deal with threats to their national security.
The 'international community' is showing exactly what it is capable of accomplishing in Darfur. I don't see Canada taking a leadership position in stopping a humanitarian crisis far worse than anything happening in Iraq. It is one thing to criticize and another to assume leadership. Rwanda was another great example of the international community not interferring in the internal affairs of a state.
It would be very foolhardy for America to rely on the U.N. to protect anything except the opulent salaries of the relatives of the kakistocracies that make of most its membership. The Oil for Food program fed a lot of fat cats, but not a lot of Iraqis.
>Charles:
>
>OK, I didn't know that you were against the war in Viet Nam.
>
>As I recall the Viet Nam War was against Communism. I was not suggesting that the current war in Iraq was against Communism. I was suggesting that the use of War to get your way in Viet Nam was not effective and it appears clear that you are not getting your way in Iraq.
>
>You lost 50,000 men before you realized that war was not working in Viet Nam. I think by the time you lose 2000 men in Iraq, you will pull out.
>
>The wars are not the same but the results will be the same. You will accomplish nothing but increase bad feelings toward your country.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
