Thursday, October 19, 2006

Lesson's on Tet

Fire of Liberty

As I woke up this morning and tuned into cable news and later this evening on CBS, I heard a lot about President Bush's interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos and how he referred to the events and environment revolving around Iraq is very similar to the Tet of 1968. Now while folks might think this is the President signaling defeat but in reality the commander-in-chief is noting that we're at a moment in which we are staying in the fight to achieve victory ,the insurgency is playing its part in changing the story.

By initiating deadlier violence the insurgency gives the media a "hell-in-the-handbasket" story to push on the American public which could provoke a change in politics thus in turn could become a moral win for the insurgency and the beginning of the end in our dignified fight in Iraq. Now while I've been on page with lessons of Tet, I figured that most people would like to read this more in debth look at what President Bush was talking about by looking at this great post by blogger Tiger Hawk. I for one hope that such a defeatist spirit doesn't become a reality in this nation because such will only embolden the enemy and make our time and struggle against Islamic fascism a far deadlier struggle.

1 comment:

shliknik said...

Nothing Bush said is a surprise - and he could be correct. The recent violence is similiar to Tet. Although the Tet offensive was a defeat on the battlefield for the enemy, it was ulimately a victory for it changed the attitude of the American public.

As you said in an earlier post - Americans do not mind fighting if they believe it's for a worthy cause. But most Americans prefer the all-out style (not half-assing it) rather than the war of attrition like Vietname became. That was gave any country the blueprint to win a war against the US.

From the beginning, I thought the US didn't have enought troops. We seemed to do enough to achieve the short-term goals but not enough to 'win'. After the fall of Irag, there was a window when change could happen and attitudes were on our side. As the war grinds on, both the Iraqi and American attitude have and will change even more.

Whatever history names this recent insurgent offensive, it does appear to be like Tet...and ultimately could lead to similiar ending.