Baker-Hamilton.

The Baker-Hamilton Report officially came out today. Scary stuff. But it's probably just the tip of the tip of the explosions that lie beneath all that.

Baker seemed to indicate on the Jim Lehrer Report December 6, 2006, that the U.S. would probably be in Iraq into the far distant future. Possibly he was referring to (or being able to say in the future that he had referenced) those little-talked-about 14 air bases in Iraq.

Much about the American War against Iraq seems to me to mimic the American War against Vietnam. We were dragged into the event by a president who lied to start the war. The enemy is personified by its leader, who is then cast as being The Devil, himself. Early opportunities to consolidate victories were wasted. "New Strategies for Victory" begin marching out of the Oval Office. The leaders of our host country are denigrated. We plan to win in a series of bold strokes, and they are successful, but ultimately meaningless. Training begins for the host country's "military" forces. New programs to Win the Hearts And Minds of the host country people are initiated. (In Vietnam, LBJ's forray into this program was called the WHAM program). The American public is told that we can't back out now - we have lost 1,000 (then 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 and so on) lives and we have to "honor them".

THEN - came the really big event. The Vietnam war had been the Democrat's baby - their problem - and THEN Nixon was put into power (with his very own "secret" plan) and the Republicans bought the war - they bought it slowly and reluctantly - but completely.

Then Vietnam became the all of America's problem.

We now have the Democrats moving into control of the House and Senate - not much control, but they will control the committies and be able to ask the questions and fund the issues. If they begin to "buy" the War in Iraq, then it will be a very long trip down into a hole from which we may not fully emerge.

©John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.