What does ISIS have in common with the Vietcong?

Vietnam War photo (public domain)

David Ignatius, foreign affairs columnist at the Washington Post, is one of a couple of pundits whose opinions I continue to respect. So it was chilling this morning to read his take on President Obama’s strategy for responding to the Islamic state.

Connecting the current conflict with ISIS to America’s tragic involvement in the Vietnam war, Ignatius writes:

Underestimating an adversary’s will to win can be a costly mistake in war, as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper noted in an interview last week. He said the U.S. had made that error recently in assessing the Islamic State, just as it did nearly 50 years ago in evaluating the staying power of the Vietcong.

Clapper’s comment was part of a broader trend over the past week in which senior military and intelligence officials have been unusually forthright about issues involving President Obama’s strategy for combating the Islamic State. In addition to Clapper’s remarks, this “push back” has been evident in comments by Gen. Martin Dempsey and Gen. Ray Odierno, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and chief of staff of the army, respectively, about the possibility that ground combat troops might be needed in Iraq and Syria.

It’s as if senior officials, having been through the vortex of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, don’t want to make the same mistake this time of suppressing concerns or misgivings. Many military, intelligence, and foreign-service officers had doubts a decade ago about the wisdom of invading Iraq, but those worries were mostly unexpressed. Not this time.

Read more:

Bill Moyers: What it’s like to go to war (video) and an alternative from Thich Nhat Hanh

Karl Marlantes, courtesy of tatteredcoverbookstoreblogspot.com.

Watching the video of Bill Moyers’ interview with Karl Marlantes, titled What it’s like to go to war, was not a pleasant interlude this Saturday afternoon.  But since he and other young men and women are sent into combat in my name, I felt obligated to tune in.

Marlantes' description of his experiences in a kill or be killed environment reminded me of an incident at my apartment building a few years ago. Walking across the parking lot one afternoon, I stopped to chat with a young man wearing an Army camouflage uniform. He was sent home from Iraq to recuperate from an illness and, he expected to be deployed again soon. When I asked him about his combat experiences, he turned pale, and the expression in his eyes was one of pure terror.

The incident confirmed my long ago conclusion that war is insane, and the expectation that you could send young men and women into combat and expect them to return home mentally and emotionally unscarred is part of the overall insanity. All the more reason, we should be required to watch the video posted below or read the full transcript. It’s the least we can do to honor the youth we send to war.

Coincidentally, I’m re-reading along with my meditation group, Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Calming the Fearful Mind: a Zen approach to terrorism, which should be required reading for all Americans as well.

Here’s the video: What It’s Like to Go to War