I really didn't know much about why we "lost" the Vietnam War until I read David Halberstam's book The Best and the Brightest. When I read that book at a certain point I came to the realization that those running the war--LBJ, McNamara, Rusk, Bundy, etc...--knew it couldn't be won. They would not admit it to themselves or anyone else but they knew. They knew they couldn't win the war but they also couldn't leave without winning. Talk about a catch 22. The plan all along was if we can setup a US friendly democracy in the South the people of the North will see how nice it is and want to live like that too. Most saw it as a shadow government run by the US. Sound familiar? Those running the war did not understand that the native people of a country will stop at nothing to keep control of their country. In my opinion what they didn't understand was that they were fighting for a political win and the Vietnamese were fighting for their country. When it comes down to that I don't think there is any doubt who will win. Most of the decision makers from back then are dead but not Robert McNamara. Since 1995 he has been trying to save his soul for being the architect of the unneeded destruction of Vietnam in the 1960's. He is now speaking out on Iraq and who would know better about this subject?

'It's just wrong what we're doing'
In an exclusive interview, repentant Vietnam War architect Robert McNamara breaks his silence on Iraq: The United States, he says, is making the same mistakes all over again

It was a busy weekend in Iraq:
6 US Soldiers killed over Weekend, Over a Dozen Wounded; 2 Iraqi police dead, dozens wounded; Helicopter Crash
The low-grade guerrilla war against the US military continued at a heated pace over the weekend..
On Sunday, a soldier died of wounds inflicted by a rocket-propelled grenade attack near Beiji, north of Baghdad..

Kucinich says Iraq policy will lead to military draft
America's policy in Iraq will lead to a resumption of the military draft, Democrat Dennis Kucinich told high school and college students Saturday.

It's not just Iraq we will need the draft for. Next on the list seems to be Syria. With the military already stretched too thin and Syria, Iran and North Korea--for starters--on the list the neocons need more bodies. So here comes the setup:

Iraqi weapons sent to Syria: Kay
David Kay, the outgoing leader of a US weapons search team in Iraq, said that part of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons program was hidden in Syria, a published report said today.

Syria Scoffs at U.S. Claim It Has Iraqi Weapons
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria brushed aside Sunday U.S. accusations that it has Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as a cover story for what it called U.S. failure in Iraq
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 7:22 AM