Ever since the last helicopter left Saigon, the specter of “another Vietnam” has haunted most American presidents who used force abroad. Ronald Reagan’s efforts in the Caribbean Rim were likened to another Vietnam. George H.W. Bush heard the same mantra during the Gulf War (though not for long). There were even “is this another Vietnam?” questions percolating during Bill Clinton’s Kosovo action.
More recently, people talked for years that Iraq was George W. Bush’s Vietnam, and talked on after Barack Hussein Obama became president that Afghanistan might become his Vietnam.
The good news? It’s not.
The bad news? He ended up mired in his own Vietnam anyway and the even worse news is that the village he’s destroying to save is our own.
Obama’s Vietnam is America.
America made a mess in Vietnam because it didn’t understand its history, culture, or people – and didn’t care. We sought to impose our allegedly superior vision on what we arrogantly considered to be a backward, backwater people clinging bitterly to a dying culture that was no longer relevant or valuable in a progressive, modern world.
Ditto for Obama in America.
America wreaked unprecedented havoc on Vietnam in the name of fighting communism, using weapons such as napalm, TNT and Agent Orange.
Ditto for Obama in America, except that the unprecedented havoc he’s so far wreaked on us, in the name of fighting injustice, uses weapons such as bigotry, class warfare and business-killing taxes and regulations.
Noble causes both, but built on hubris, lies and ignorance – and both laid bare by unexpected assaults just when they thought they were winning.
For America in Vietnam, that assault was the 1968 Tet Offensive, which came out of nowhere after months of America’s president and military leaders declaring that the Viet Cong were finished, the NVA were done, their remaining resistance inconsequential – and that victory was just ahead, a light at the end of the tunnel.
Ditto for Obama in America, except that the assault was the 2011 Debt Offensive, which came out of nowhere after months of America’s president and Democratic leaders declaring that the Tea Party was finished, the Republican Party was done, their remaining resistance futile – and that victory was at hand.
The world watched President Lyndon Baines Johnson declare victory after the Tet Offensive – and even the Viet Cong and NVA knew they’d lost badly. Two generations later, the world watched President Barack Hussein Obama declare victory after the Debt Offensive – and even the Tea Party and Maha Rushie thought they’d lost badly.
But as with post-Tet Offensive Vietnam, when a tactical triumph morphed overnight into a strategic rout, Obama’s post-Debt Offensive chickens came quickly home to roost. Ever since his debt ceiling “victory,” his poll numbers have plummeted, his supporters have defected in droves, and Tea Party godfather Ron Paul polls almost evenly with him in a head-to-head matchup.
The Tet Offensive of 1968 and the Debt Offensive of 2011 are textbook examples of how committed insurgent force can prevail over entrenched imperial power. Tet marked the beginning of the end of America’s war in Vietnam – and struck a fatal blow to LBJ’s presidency. Debt began the same endgame for Obama’s war on America – and has mortally wounded his presidency as well.
Lyndon Baines Johnson announced just weeks after the Tet Offensive that he would not run for reelection. Would that his Debt Offensive counterpart could bring himself to do the same.