Posted by
Boris Tiraspolsky on Sunday, December 09, 2007 8:55:55 PM
"I am basically sympathetic to President Bush.I am partly sympathetic to it because I have seen comparable situations."
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger said: "A 'military victory' in the sense of total control over the whole territory, imposed on the entire population, is not possible. The faceless, ubiquitous nature of Iraq's insurgency, as well as the religious divide between Shiite and Sunni rivals, makes negotiating peace more complex. It is a more complicated problem. The Vietnam War involved states, and you could negotiate with leaders who controlled a defined area."
Comment by Boris Tiraspolsky:
Dear Secretary Kissinger, I agree with you, Iraq is "more complicated problem" then the Vietnam War. However, I do not think that a comparison of the situation in Iraq today to the Vietnam War has merits. In the light of total terrorist warfare waged against the United States by Islamic terrorists, the Vietnam War could be remembered just as a warning of a wrong policies you were an integral part of.
The defeat of the United States in Vietnam that you personally had mastered, created a historic precedent that made possible the 444 day hostage crisis in Teheran - November 4, 1979, through January 20, 1981. Moreover, the both attacks of Islamic terrorists on WTC - February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001 - are also an echo of those wrong policies that led to lost of the American superiority, as the World Military Power in the Vietnam War.
With all due respect to your service, the Nation has to establish historical justice and reach a final verdict: the decision of the United States to withdraw from the Vietnam War was in a long run a strategic mistake. Therefore, when it comes to the current situation in Iraq your words that you "sympathetic to it because I have seen comparable situations" is nothing, but a "moving finger" showing a direction the Nation must not go.