<The first mistake that will be recorded in history, the belief that containment as a policy doesn't work >
<The second mistake I think history will record is that the strategy was flawed>
Containment does work, but Bush doctrine called for ‘strategic encirclement’ what you are seeing is encirclement of forces of instability that had their epicentre in Afghanistan and Iraq. One ruled by medieval thugs other ruled by man who wasted and spilled blood in the region the way he saw fit, now I am not going to argue on who told what to him but he was a symbol of instability for Shiites and GCC. I have listened from leading Shiites leaderships during the building up of the momentum of war and after the fall of Baghdad behind closed door Sunni dominated diwaniyas that how they are relived that iron fist rule of Saddam and baathist is over. Minorities are gaining new freedom an expression they had no idea about, now it is like post revolution Bastille but things are definitely going to improve and improve fast, the biggest challenge was thrown by Godfather Sadr a lunatic young man who wants to control the Hawzah and the seats of Shiite Islam in Najaf. This is a battle that destroys the entire leadership of grand Ayotahallhs sitting in Najaf who want to see Iraq united and want to see the temporal authority separated from running of the Hawzah and government, the don’t believe in concept of ultimate arbiter from God that is vilayat ul fiqah. Iraqi nation would emerge very strong but very divided, it was constituted out of remnants of Ottoman Empire, it has faultiness that are geographical and ideological one cannot overlook those fault lines Saddam did exploit them well, however in this newly connected world a democratic free Iraq goes a long way to settle the problems of the region. This policy of containment of the bigots and demagogues is very much in place they are running for their lives whereas before they were out their to take lives of ordinary people, to suggest that Iraq is a Pandora box is very banal assessment, in my opinion Iraq provided a bait where all these loonies within Arab world have rushed to fight the last war, if the strategy was to take the war to an unknown enemy I think it was superbly executed that unknown enemy after fall of medieval Taliban was attracted to Iraqi magnet like piece of ore, to have them all under one roof an unseen enemy is a strategic containment this is what we call taking the war to them, this is what America worst nightmare was an unknown enemy lurking to destroy a way of life. If American army is not going to do job who lese can do it, what is the point of huge defence expenditure when it comes to real sacrifice e look for lame excuses to avoid engagement, yes it is about engagement and it is success of containment that we see the people on the run.
<The third mistake, I think was one we repeated from Vietnam, we had to create a false rationale for going in to get public support >
Mass public wants instant answers to century old problems, AlQaeda is not after WTC or 911 was not about destroying America, it is about implementation of medieval Taliban rule on one billion strong Islamic world, it is about destroying very fabric that connects humans together, it is about hijacking of Islamic moderation and replacing it by extremism of worst kind, Vietnma was a war where 50,000 Americans laid their lives but let me remind Mr. Zinni that without Vietnam we would have had no ASEAN but an Eastern Europe that would have been freed from shackles of communism after may be 50 more years of suppression. The very things you condemn that is aggression against an innocent prisoner and I share your condemnation communist China and Russians were worst oppressors, it was a war on system of life for South East Asia, as a growing up child I remember that possibility of communist take over of entire South east, as a youth I remember the threats of Russians to move their borders on to Persian Gulf warm water ports, a lot of have been achieved, Vietnam was a apparent policy disaster but it did drew a line on the global map that some lines need not be crossed, today the entire South Asia is happily married to MacDonald’s and a way of life that is high claries and high cholesterol diet . Not that I agree but the very reason we have Taiwan, Hong Kong prospering is for the sacrifices renedered in Vietnam. Jane Fonda did not support that I think that was Californian tragedy, the Woodstock generation could not see the collateral benefits that some American sacrifices bring on to far fetched nations, it is too myopic to term Vietnam as a total public relation disaster, it was last frontier where ‘Gulags and great cultural leap forward’ which amongst two of them under Stalin and Mao ate 30 million human beings were spared for our region. Now you work your own mathematics like 2000 man who died in first few hours at Omaha beach freed a country that has the audacity to stand up to America. This is the kind of system that American intervention have created, I am not American and it is in bad taste that I should defend America with such a vigour it neither makes me popular with Americans nor with my own people but it is not about playing for galleries it about the long view of history, a common man completely ignores all it, why it happens differently if Osama is stalled a common man would only concentrate on the breaking news on CNN what was not achieved by these bandits and what could have been if Vietnam would have been left over or Indonesians or ASEANS would have fallen to Communist minority rule, those things are unquantifiable but seeing Eastern Europe and seeing the descend of Iron curtain since 1990 we can assume what could have been the shape of these economies. China being an integral part of global economy is not an accident it is the long term benefit of the policy of containment.
George Keenan was right the system imploded but the US determination to stop the system expanding itself whenever it tried to chew new territories did create internal frictions and that helped the communists to fall as a system of life or as an alternative, even today the greatest communist nation China is greatest partner with the capitalists all around, this very success that Russians and Chinese were overcome by share policy of active intervention and sacrifice is lost to that peacenik but not to a person who sees history with a little more of interest and depth than a common bystander.
<We failed in number four, to internationalize the effort >
I don’t know what he is talking about, what America needed in this war was support of the Islamic governments who underpinned the entire edifice of the unknown enemy, these governments from Saudi to Pakistan to Afghanistan and Jordan are within the alliance against this war on unseen enemy, internationalisation failed since Europe could not come on board for their own indecision, but Europe had let Balkans burn for years Kosovo was on the brink until Nato acted on US prodding, Montenegro Serbians were bombed to get them off Kosovo back, all these needed some sacrifices from no one else but Americans, even collateral damage was huge while Belgrade was being bombarded, Chinese embassy was hit by mistake, does that mean the intervention in Balkans was wrong, it did create and helped peace and it did contained the demons that were out to destroy the very peace, Balkans were the harbinger of first world war, every client state has an interest their with huge super powers, the Serbs with the Russians and attachment to the orthodoxy church, the Croats with the Germans and Bosnians with the Turks, it was a tinder box but someone through threat and cajoling helped bring senses together. From Malaysia to Indonesia to Morocco and Libya the entire Islamic moderate world is fighting this cancer of terror and Zinni says that it is not properly internationalised, I think if internationalisation means support of Europe may be he is right but even China and Russians are on board as far as the containment of the enemy is concerned. The war on terror is quite broad based and has great impact on the terror outfits. |
