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The trauma of Vietnam is still in the minds of many American people, although more than 30 years have passed. Memories of bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail and villages in North Vietnam, killing unarmed women and children, Buddhists setting themselves on fire in South Vietnam to protest the war, the well-known footage of desperate escapees hanging onto a rising helicopter, the 59,000 American casualties, the burden of the huge military budget -- all of these remind Americans that the Vietnam war was the wrong war in the wrong place and against the wrong enemy. This trauma lasted for nearly two decades, until "victory" in the Cold War over the former Soviet Union revived American confidence over their global mission.
Since then, the United States has been using its power to reshape the global order. There was the first Gulf War, the Kosovo War and the war in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban government. All these achievements made the Americans feel victorious and confident, if not arrogant. Surveys found that President George W. Bush's approval rating was over 90 percent after the overthrow of the Taliban. Americans lauded Bush's accomplishments, and thus, under the flag of democracy, the United States began its mission to "liberate" Iraq, to create a roadmap for the Middle East and to threaten Iran and North Korea.
The mission is still ongoing, yet the increasing deaths of American soldiers have made the American people more doubtful and less confident that they can finish the mission. Bush has come under strong criticism, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been forced to resign, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been cursed as a warmonger. Ahead of the next presidential election, the passion is growing stronger than ever, even if not entirely rational. What's more, fanned by the Democrats, the people have begun to show strong disapproval of Bush's Iraq policy, with many demanding an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in order to avoid "another Vietnam."
Will the Iraq War be like the disgraced Vietnam War? Has America already lost the Iraq War? Is it wise to pull the troops out now? The increasing number of casualties, the expanding military budget and the anti-war protests make a withdrawal seem likely. However, could these anti-war actions be irrational and prescriptive? Upon reflection, it might be discerned that this war may be at the wrong time, but it is in the right place and against the right enemies.
To say it is the wrong time is to say that Iraq is in great disorder now, with the increasing attacks from insurgents, a fragile government and the daily addition of new terrorist cells. Neighboring Arab countries may be further contaminated by terrorists, America's friends will begin to doubt that the United States can keep its promise, and the world will view all this as the decline of U.S. capability.
The Middle East will face overall chaos, the Taliban or al-Qaida will gain momentum, leading to a domino effect and an era of pan-terrorism.
Before all this occurs, the United States at least has the obligation to bring some order to the chaos and fulfill its mission before initiating a withdrawal. This battlefield might be right for America too. There are insurgents including the Taliban, separatists and al-Qaida, there are also latent enemies in neighboring countries that hate America's presence, so the Americans could be justified in demonstrating their strategic skill and capability against these enemies.
What the United States must do next is to wipe out terrorism, make the Iraqi government run properly and put Iraq in order. Strategically, terrorists are not the wrong enemies for America. These enemies are different from those of the Vietnam War, when Americans had to fight against Vietnamese, Chinese, Soviets, Laos, and states of the Warsaw block. America was really among a jungle of enemies. Today, there are no unified, well-equipped and well-mobilized enemies publicly supported by nation states, so for America, the enemies are essentially individuals. Defeating them will be a token victory over fundamentalism, in the U.S. belief.
As such, the increasing casualties among soldiers and enlarged military spending do not constitute a good argument for pulling out the U.S. troops. As the 18th-century military theorist Carl von Clausewitz argued, "War is merely a continuation of politics." A war without sacrifice cannot be called a war. Since the bell was forged by the United States, why should the Americans leave without ringing the bell?
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(Zhang Quanyi is an associate professor at the Zhejiang Wanli University in Ningbo, China, and a PhD candidate at Shanghai International Studies University, studying policy making and collective identity. He is currently a research fellow at the School of International Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, under a grant by the Korea Foundation. He can be contacted at qyzhangupi@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Zhang Quanyi.)
