Paralyzed Vet Bobby Muller: "Vietnam All Over Again"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/46549/

Bobby Muller is President of Veterans for America (formerly the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation), and a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

Vietnam All Over Again
By Bobby Muller, AlterNet
Posted on January 11, 2007, Printed on January 11, 2007

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In 1968, shortly after Clark Clifford succeeded Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense, Secretary Clifford met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss the war in Vietnam. He quickly learned that America's top military leaders did not know how many troops were needed nor did they know what constituted victory.

During March 1968, despite this discovery, President Johnson agreed to send 24,500 more troops to Vietnam on an emergency basis. President Johnson and Secretary Clifford thought that this increase in U.S. troops would lead to U.S. victory there. And in an address to the nation on March 31 President Johnson stated: "We have no intention of widening this war."

At that time, approximately 24,000 U.S. service members had died in Vietnam. By the end of that war, more than 58,000 U.S. troops had been killed. More U.S. soldiers died winding down the war than had in starting it. In addition, by the end of the war, the United States had greatly expanded the war into Cambodia and Laos.

But, little more than a year later, after he left office, Clifford wrote: "Nothing we might do could be so beneficial ... as to begin to withdraw our combat troops. Moreover ... we cannot realistically expect to achieve anything more through our military force, and the time has come to begin to disengage."

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Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. In addition, some in the U.S. government blame neighbors such as Iran and Syria for exacerbating sectarian tensions in Iraq. Increasing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq increases the likelihood that the United States will be pulled further into an intra-Iraqi struggle and deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf -- apparently in an effort to warn Syria and Iran and to increase the flexibility for commanders in the region -- reminds me of the decision by U.S. military and civilian leadership to expand the war in Vietnam beyond the borders of that country.

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