The conventional wisdom seems to be that Vietnam was a bad war because we lost. Pity, because the tragedy is that there was nothing there to win.
It is a distinction that I fear has been lost among our political leadership on both sides of the aisle. It’s easy to imagine war as capture the flag – two grand armies fighting to seize the other’s capital city. Onwards for glory, to Mexico City or Richmond or Berlin. But the world can be maddeningly more complicated.
During the campaign John McCain insisted on what I would call the Martingale strategy of combat: just keep throwing troops at the problem. It reflects all the frustrations of Gulliver among the Lilliputians; how is it that this band of people who cannot block our advance in any cardinal direction can so stymie our will? Why won’t they give in? Surely you don’t expect us to give in to them? They cannot make us yield.
But is it yielding to have the confidence in our strength to follow our interests? The heavyweight champion does not need to fight every barroom goon.
