Little has been learned from Vietnam War mistakes

Once again columnist Georgie Anne Geyer nails it.

OK, I know a lot of young people think guys my age dwell on the Vietnam War too much. That may be right, sometimes, but the truth is the mistakes of that time weren’t new then, and they still happen for the same reasons as they did then.

Please read “Little has been learned from the lessons of Vietnam.”

“...We have been cursed in the Middle East these last few years not to have national leaders with mature wisdom. Instead, we see the naive surprise, not of innocent children, but of unversed and arrogant leaders expressing constant astonishment at what should, in fact, be palpably obvious.

Both Israelis and Americans have been endlessly ‘surprised’ by Hezbollah’s admittedly appalling attacks on Israel, and the rest of the world has been equally ‘surprised’ at Israel’s outbalanced counterreckoning. The American establishment is, after 3½ years of disastrous meddling, ‘surprised’ as Iraqis veer from insurgency against the always hated occupier to sectarian strife with their eternally despised neighbors and to all-out civil war among the Iraqi sects and sectors. Americans still believe, according to recent polls, that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What can one say?”

Sadly, there are still guys so caught up with their angry denial of the history of the era they're still saying that the war-protesters at home lost the Vietnam War. They just can't accept that it's possible for any country to get into a bad war, if it has bad leadership.