February 21, 2007 - The greater the U.S. military commitment…the less possibility that any…government will be capable of asserting its own authority on its home ground or abroad…The size of the U.S. commitment already clearly is suffocating and serious possibility of self-determination…for the simple reason that the whole defense of that country is now totally dependent on the U.S. armed presence.”  The speaker went on to say that the United States should declare victory and start bringing the troops home.  He was not speaking of Iraq. “South Vietnam” fills the elisions.

Those words were spoken on the Senate Floor by Vermont Senator George Aiken.  Senator Aiken was a Conservative Republican elder statesman when he spoke.  He was first elected to the Senate in 1941. It was October 1966 when he spoke.  At the beginning of 1966 2,800 American soldiers had died in Vietnam.  By the end of 1966 the death toll stood at 8,400. George Aiken never changed his mind about Vietnam.  His vocal opposition to the war continued through the Nixon and Ford administrations.  When he was later asked on Meet The Press just how he would bring the troops home his response was terse. “On boats”, was what he said.

Let’s look at the U.S. objectives in the Second Iraqi War.  First, disarm Iraq from weapons of mass destruction.  Mission accomplished, there are no WMDs in Iraq nor is there any program to produce them. Second, depose Saddam and achieve regime change.  Mission accomplished. Saddam has been hung and the Ba`athist regime deposed.  Third, install an elected responsive regime that will not support terrorist organizations.  Again the mission has been accomplished.  The conditions to permit a unilateral declaration of military victory in Iraq have been created.

At the beginning of 2007 the American death toll stands at 3147 and the year is just started.  Increasingly America is going it alone in Iraq.  NATO is not likely to materially reinforce its commitment to the neglected war in Afghanistan.  America must carry the increasing burden of the Afghan war as well and that, not Iraq, is the war that America dare not lose and stalemate is a loss.  It is in Afghanistan that the western democracies directly confront the Taliban and Al Qaeda.  As America “surges” in Iraq the enemy is resurgent in Afghanistan while America continues to neglect its commitment there.

We like to refer to America as the World’s only Superpower.  That may be true.  America may have the residual of power to impose its will around the planet but its leadership lacks the political will to harness that power for war.  The nation is not mobilized to achieve victory anywhere.   From the beginning of the conflict the President of the United States has lacked the political courage to call upon the American people to endure sacrifice for the war effort.  Instead he encourages them to flock to the shopping malls and put the dying and maimed troops out of their minds while he finances his wars on the backs of their children.

The embattled British Prime Minister announced today that he has determined to follow George Aiken’s advice drawing down Britain’s commitment to the War in Iraq even while George Bush is “surging” America’s supply of meat for the grinder.  41 years have passed since Senator Aiken’s speech.  Military technologies have developed new capabilities.  The Senator’s advice to bring the troops home “on boats” is no longer applicable.  George Bush should bring them home on planes.