Another Vietnam?

In a recent speech, President Bush outlined the dangers of not completing the mission in Iraq. Max Boot argues he didn't go far enough:

That assessment actually understates the terrible repercussions from the American defeat, whose ripples spread around the world. In the late 1970s, America's enemies seized power in countries from Mozambique to Iran to Nicaragua. American hostages were seized aboard the SS Mayaguez (off Cambodia) and in Tehran. The Red Army invaded Afghanistan.

It is impossible to prove the connection with the Vietnam War, but there is little doubt that the enfeeblement of a superpower encouraged our enemies to undertake acts of aggression that they might otherwise have shied away from. Indeed, as Mr. Bush noted, jihadists still gain hope from what Ayman al Zawahiri accurately describes as "the aftermath of the collapse of the American power in Vietnam and how they ran and left their agents."

If you were an Iraqi faced with a choice right now - to work with the Coalition toward a unified Iraq or to throw your lot in with a sectarian group - would you trust us not to run and leave you?

No End but Victory.