Circles of History:

The past has come to the futre. Despite what some choose not to believe Iraq is Vietnam allover again, and again the consequences very might well be the same. A withdrawl and a sence of defeat in war. Iraq is not great war, just like Vietnam. They are wars of the same nature, gurilla wars, war by any means possible that sap the will of the invader, by death, and by terror. Not great wars. Wars of folly. The ideals of Democracy are noble and just, but the means by which we pursue those ideals are not. It will take us another generation to recover from the Iraq war, another genration disenfranchised with Ameriacas' foriegn policies abroad. What will the lasting impact be? It will the same as it was after we left Vietnam. A nation timid, and fearful of going to war, if there is not a overwhelming compelling reason to send our forces into harms way. The military fights wars, trains to fight wars, plans for them, breathes them. They are yet deaths machine. To kill or be killed. The bloodlust of the Amerian military needs to be checked. I believe that the lust for a fight is too strong in the Amerian military. Yet something postive can come out the Iraq war for the American military if it chooses. It can recognize the mistakes it made in the way it trains and plans for wars, the generals need to work with the politicians to come up with a sensible national defense policy. The military should allways remind politicians of the Colin Powell rule of war," you break it you own it." The Pentagon budget allso needs to be shaken up as I hope the defence dept has seen. Better equipment, and boots for the troops on the ground and less million dollar pork barell projects. The military idustrial complex that plagued the Pentagon during the eighties, and nineties needs to come to an end. Other wise the health of the republic very well might continue to decline as a result of out of controlled military expenditures. If nothing is done, and changes are failed to made then history will continue to produce circles as we produce the same parrells through time. Humanity is good at lerning from the past, but are we good at lerning from our recent history to see what we need to do, to break the timeless circles of history?