So, America has produced another Viet Nam. The American no longer has the stomach to fight the battles before they appear on their own streets.

Submitted by kman (United States), Jul 9, 2009 at 23:15

Well and good. Nobody answers to the reality of letting the Vietnamese "have what they wanted". Nobody makes any effort to see the desecration the communists have visited upon a country that now abases itself in order to get American aid. Aw, yes, the successes of communism. They really made a big difference didn't they? I mean besides the "PR" photos that microscopically tell an alternate truth - a lie.

I have to disagree with the PIpes idea of having deposed Saddam, quickly establishing a government, and then hightailing it. There was easily enough of the old guard military and politicians waiting around for just that. Anything we set up would have been replaced by an identical Saddam government.

How do you leave a powder keg with a sizzling fuse within a Middle East that delivers the vast quantity of oil that fuels the world's commerce? A powder keg is what Saddam was and is what would have replaced him. It still may. At the least, we have left an outpost for militant Islam.

All wars produce a multitude of mistakes by both sides. There is always that delusional alternate of compromise that hangs the compromiser in the end. Because Bush presented one reason for going into Iraq, does that mean there wasn't any good reason? The same applied to Viet Nam. You can leave a cancer alone if you wish, but any idiot can tell you the ultimate result. You can cut rot out of an apple, wrap it in something, and preserve the apple. Leave the rot and it will spread to the whole barrel. ... and eventually all barrels.

There was a large segment of the Iraqi population that saw the great value the American troops delivered outside the military realm. We re-built schools, hospitals, electrical systems, sewer systems, and fought to make their streets safe. The Islamic radicals chose to make Iraq their battleground. We weren't just fighting "bad guy Iraqis".

Of course what can one expect from the Liberal press that now has a stranglehold on the "news" in the world? Perhaps these pictures were a Hollywood set-up? I exagerrate to make a point. How far do you really trust these photo-op shots of "Iraqis dancing in the streets"? I heard the alternate stories (the truth) in Iran long before the press showed the real sentiments there. If you want truthful news you have to find a truthful source.

We have advanced the cause of radical and militant Islam by our cowardly withdrawal. It was a foregone conclusion, anyway. We also, produced Viet Nam and now we have a much stronger communist presence in the world that dares to challenge the tin pot government and peoples of the United States. The Muslim militants saw the same thing. The whole world is now convinced that the American public no longer has the stomach to fight for anything besides corrupt and greedy politicians, industrialists, and the bloated American way of life.

China, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran are all watching and having themselves a party and big laugh over the "Paper Tiger's" demise.

Let the world domination by despots commence. It isn't worth saving anymore. God Almighty will bring about his eventual purpose, but man has lost it

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".