"We're past that stage now because now we are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam," Hagel said. "The longer we stay, the more problems we're going to have."
Allen said that unlike the communist-guided North Vietnamese that the U.S. fought, the insurgents in Iraq have no guiding political philosophy or organization. Still, Hagel argued, the similarities are growing.
"What I think the White House does not yet understand — and some of my colleagues — the dam has broke on this policy," Hagel said. "The longer we stay there, the more similarities (to Vietnam) are going to come together."
Any similarities to Vietnam are simply those shared with any war. Well, there is one potential similarity: defeat can be snatched from the jaws of victory by those too dim to see that they can cause defeat--not predict it.
Though we can lose this war--as any war can be lost--I think we have passed the point where we can be beaten.
But I hate to take the chance, so I cannot do anything but shudder that a United States Senator would make such a pronouncement when his own military experience should tell him what price soldiers pay when politicians go wobbly.
I certainly hope he hasn't got his heart set on the Republican nomination for 2008. He may have guaranteed the New York Times editorial board endorsement but that's about all she wrote for higher ambitions.
UPDATE: Let me clarify my assumption of victory comment. I think that the Baathists and jihadis will fail to overthrow the government and will be ground down--either fast or slow--even if we have to pull out under domestic pressure. If we pull out too soon the government victory will be ugly and brutal but it will win. I do not assume that the bigger objective of a democratic Iraq is guaranteed now. I think it can be achieved but I don't assume it. Never have. So we will either have a narrow military victory that ended Saddam's threat or we will have a chance to achieve a bigger victory in the region through the example of democracy in Iraq. I don't rule out that eventually we could get this bigger victory even if we have to settle for a less-than-democratic Iraq that at least is at peace and seeks to build prosperity at home.
