November 29, 2004 - If Senator John Kerry read the lead article in this morning’s New York Times it had to prick his memory. So much of the 2004 campaign was focused on images from thirty-five years ago; fast boats carrying small units made up of local and US troops up river to clean out nests of enemy guerrillas armed with AK47s and RPGs. He had to wonder if 35 years from now a boat commander on Sunday’s SURC raid up the Euphrates would see his courage questioned, his tactics second guessed, and his integrity slurred to the degree that we saw in this year’s Presidential campaign. He had to have mixed emotions as the Marines and Iraqi Commandos adopted the tactics that he was a part of working out in the Mekong Delta three decades ago. There had to be a measure of pride mixed with concern as memories of his local successes on the Mekong reminded him that they had little effect on the big picture of Vietnamese insurgency.

Four SURCS overloaded with 80 Marines and 20 Iraqi commandos swept up the Euphrates to the village of Chard Duwaish. As the troops waded through the waist deep mud British light armor provided support from the opposite bank. Drones and Helicopter gun ships flew air cover. There was supposed to be a massive arms cache in the village. A day long operations scoured three miles of river bank and netted one shotgun, three Kalashnikovs and two sets of ID documents of high ranking Ba`athist official. That was it. No shots were fired. A convoy of trucks and Humvees picked up the troops to take them back to their base at Camp Kalsu. Near Latifiya a roadside bomb exploded but there were no casualties. Two Iraqis suspected of having set off the bomb. One was killed and the other captured. He had a cell phone.

The whole report had to remind Senator Kerry of the experiences he had in the spring of 1969. In 1969 America looked forward to more years of war just as America looks forward to more years of war in Iraq. It also had to give him a measure of relief that it is George Bush and not John Kerry who is faced with the problem of the Iraqi version of the Gordian Knot.

It was just one more operation in a series of operations to control an insurgency just as Lt. John Kerry’s operations three decades ago were intended to control an insurgency. The Swift Boats have grown up into higher tech SURCs but the mission is the same and the results sound familiar. We are speeding down the same dangerous highway looking for the exit.