Another Vietnam?
PrintFriday August 26, 2005
When a U.S. led coalition invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, a clear majority of Americans believed it to be an appropriate step in the war on terror. Furthermore, when these highly trained soldiers appeared to have made quick work of Iraq’s military apparatus, optimism couldn’t have been higher. Operation “Iraqi Freedom” had all the appearances of a “text-book” military success. Almost everything seemed to go right. Within three weeks, Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical government had been toppled. Furthermore, its oppressive dictator had been forced to abandon his palatial estates and seek refuge in the most primitive of conditions. In December of that year he was discovered hiding in a small hole looking very defeated.
Less than two months after “shock and awe” had commenced, President George W Bush triumphantly landed aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and declared an end to “major combat operations.” This was done as a huge banner behind him prominently displayed the words “Mission Accomplished.”
That was over two years ago.
Today the picture looks very different. What was once a “cake-walk” is now looking like a nightmare of days gone by. Can you say Vietnam? The war America finds itself in today is looking strangely similar to the conflict that polarized our nation more than forty years ago—and that fact has some on capital hill rethinking their positions.
The support President Bush originally enjoyed on both sides of the political aisle has pretty much evaporated. In its wake there is doubt, and a lingering question: Was this really worth the price we are paying? And just how long can we continue on this course?
Consider for a moment what this conflict has cost our nation. During the official combat operations (March 19 - May 1,2003) 115 US military personnel lost their lives. An additional 23 died of non-combat injuries. However, since the end of “combat operations” over 1,850 American servicemen have paid the ultimate price in this far away land. Furthermore, an additional 13,800 have been wounded. Although the casualty statistics for Iraqi civilians are less reliable, the most conservative estimates put the number at over 20,000 deaths. But there is more.
Of the 300,000 forces that have served in Iraq, approximately 255,000 are from the United States. Today approximately 130,000 Americans serve in that region. With respect to the financial impact of America’s Iraq policy, the numbers are staggering. Every month US taxpayers are paying 4 billion dollars to maintain the “peace” and to facilitate a transition to a free and stable government. Add to that some experts are suggesting that an American military presence in the region could last an additional four years.
With this said, does the United States have the collective will to stay the course set by its Commander in Chief? If you believe Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, it may not. Furthermore, a growing number are beginning to think, perhaps it shouldn’t. Senator Hagel who received two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam, has suggested that this war may actually be destabilizing the region and that it is beginning to resemble the Vietnam conflict of a generation ago. He then declared that the United States needs to develop a strategy for leaving this war torn country.
While appearing on "This Week" on ABC, Senator Hagel scoffed at the idea that substantial U.S. troops might actually be in Iraq four years from now, a contingency for which the Pentagon is preparing.
"We should start figuring out how we get out of there. But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."
Senator Hagel went on to say that the administration’s policy of "stay the course" is not a policy. He then suggested the unthinkable, DEFEAT.
"By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning.”
Senator Hagel, who was among those who advocated sending two to three times as many troops to Iraq when the war began in March 2003, said a stronger military presence by the U.S. is not the solution today.
"We're past that stage now because now we are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar to where we were in Vietnam. The longer we stay, the more problems we're going to have."
Hagel then presented a scenario that would result in just the opposite of what The United States is seeking in Iraq.
"It would bog us down, it would further destabilize the Middle East, it would give Iran more influence, it would hurt Israel, it would put our allies over there in Saudi Arabia and Jordan in a terrible position. It won't be four years. We need to be out."
Meanwhile, some Middle East experts are weighing in on the topic and explaining why the President is correct in his assessment concerning the critical nature of Iraq, and why the stakes are so important. One such expert is former Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross. Mr. Ross argues that the President must frame this issue as “the new struggle of our time” and that Americans must “understand what we're contending with and why it's so important for us not to fail.”
President Bush contends that the threat of global terrorism is very real and that it poses as great a threat as the former Soviet Union did less that twenty years ago. The President has frequently cast the war as a worldwide battle. When speaking to National Guard troops he offered the following assessment:
"The first war of the 21st century is a war on a global scale. And to protect our people, we've got to prevail in every theater.”
In his speeches on Iraq, the President has consistently argued that free nations are peaceful ones. But the stakes appear to be far more than that. Bush characterizes Iraq as a make-or-break, do-or-die stand for Islamic terrorism.
"They know that the success of a free Iraq, who can be a key ally in the War on Terror and a symbol of success for others, will be a crushing blow to their strategy to dominate the region and threaten America and the free world.”
President Bush further argues that if the United States and its allies succeed in Iraq, terrorists would begin to lose their sponsors and their recruits. They would also lose their sanctuaries, like the one it enjoyed in Afghanistan from which Al Qaeda planned the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on America.
But the President also knows that Americans can become demoralized by images of mutilated women and children killed by vicious terrorists. This is a very serious reality of terrorism and the President has appealed to Americans to not let this reality break the nation’s resolve. He recently put it this way.
"They'll kill women and children, knowing that the images of their brutality will horrify civilized people. Their goal is to force us to retreat.”
Despite these words it appears that the nation’s patience is wearing thin. Pressure is growing on the administration to withdraw or at least schedule a deadline for remaining in Iraq. With concerns that popular opinion could create a critical mass that would force the coalition to lose heart and withdraw, one Iraqi analyst described the devastation that would result.
"It's going to mean a disaster for the whole region. If we leave Iraq now before its security forces are strong enough to fight the insurgents and the terrorists, we are creating a new breeding ground for terrorists."
Dennis Ross painted an even bleaker picture. He warned that if the terrorists were to win, Iraq, not the United States, would become their model nation, and the danger to the West would be far greater.
"They acquire a kind of a momentum and we have to blunt that. I would like to see the President talk much more about those kinds of stakes because this is a way to explain what we're contending with, what we're fighting."
Our Analysis:
The Bible reveals that when the children of Israel were preparing to enter the land of Canaan, God entered into a special relationship with them. Under the terms of this relationship He would bless and protect them and they would obey Him. Included in that covenant was protection from their enemies. God promised that those who hated His people would be scattered if they attempted to harm them.
The Lord shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to be smitten before your face: they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. (Dt. 28:7)
In the book of Leviticus, God indicated that Israel’s military superiority would be so overwhelming, that they would be able to rout armies that outnumbered them 100 to one.
And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. (Lev. 26:8)
When God established the nation of Israel, He knew it would have enemies. But He also knew that He could provide them with the greatest security network on earth. God assured the Israelites that they would receive that protection if they obeyed.
However, in the interest of fairness, God also explained what Israel’s defenses would look like without Him, and it is not a pleasant sight. The great strength they would enjoy as a superpower would be so depleted they would actually be turned to flight by enemies who were radically inferior to them. God began by indicating that He would break the pride of Israel’s power (Lev. 26:19). As a result, what lay before them would be inconceivable.
The Lord shall cause you to be smitten before your enemies: you shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. (Dt.28:25)
So complete would be Israel’s destruction that it would be driven out of its own land and led away captive.
The Lord shall bring you, and your king which you shall set over yourself, unto a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known; and there shall you serve other gods, wood and stone. And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations wither the Lord shall lead you. (Dt. 28:36-37)
When describing the utter destruction of Israel, God also said it would be perpetrated by an enemy that had a ferocious contempt for everything about this once-blessed nation. Furthermore, this enemy would show absolutely no mercy on their captives. They would only despise them, whether young or old.
The Lord shall bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor unto the young. …And he shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fenced walls come down, wherein you trusted, throughout all your land: and he shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given thee. (Dt. 28:49-52)
Israel would ultimately find out that God was not bluffing when He explained the consequences of defiance to Him. They would be routed by foreign nations and led away as captive slaves.
A Lesson for Today
As the world watches first hand America’s struggle with a massively inferior adversary, we at Blow the Trumpet believe a question cries out.
Are we witnessing the fall of the mightiest nation on earth?
It would be easy to dismiss our words as tantamount to shouting, “The sky is falling.” But all one has to do is go back just two years. Today, leaders once loyal to the President’s position on Iraq are now suggesting that the United States appears to be pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory in this conflict. Furthermore, what if we fail? How would such a conclusion impact the United States and Britain? What would the Middle East look like if the most powerful nation on earth decided to stand down? And what about terrorist groups and their recruitment efforts around the world?
We at Blow the Trumpet believe that America’s biggest mistake today is failing to see the link between the war it is beginning to lose in the Middle East, and the one it is losing at home. America has rejected her God and mocked His moral authority. Today we have expelled God from our schools, kicked Him out of our courts, and have declared Him a threat to liberty itself. Today, through its great moral pronouncements, America calls the profane holy and the holy profane. It defends filth in the name of freedom. And it condemns faith as a threat to the very same freedom.
Are we going to succeed in Iraq? Not likely. Why? Because we have abandoned the very source of our protection. Our problem is not the absence of military clout, it’s the presence of national arrogance and the depletion of national character. Without character our strength means NOTHING. When we had it we respected faith and its role in our lives. Today that has all changed. In this world we think we can define morality to mean anything we want it to be. And any God that wants to tell us what is good or what is evil has no place in our lives.
Well here is a news flash for the land of the proud and the home of the arrogant. Unless you repent, and turn your heart back to the God who has so richly blessed this country, He will turn His back on you. If that happens, here are our nine predictions.
Nine Predictions
1) America will fail in Iraq
2) Thousands more will die
3) Terrorist organizations will become emboldened
4) The United States will once again be the Big Prize to psychotic killers waging their "jihads".
5) Iraq will never have a stable governing body.
6) It will never enjoy a lasting peace
7) Finally, America’s enemies will mock her
8) Her friends will doubt her and,
9) Her God will forsake her.
There are many who may see these words as silly. Well, let them laugh. Because they won’t be laughing for long. Calamity is ever so close. It is even at the door.
Respectfully,
Blow the Trumpet
