Missing The Analogy Department
Some have said that Iraq is another Vietnam. Rich Lowry of National Review agrees, and disagrees.
Iraq is another Vietnam. Not for the U.S. For al-Qaeda.
When the United States lost Vietnam, it lost credibility and saw an emboldened Marxist-Leninist offensive around the third world. Al-Qaeda is a global insurgency and not a nation-state — and thus its circumstances are radically different from ours 40 years ago — but it has suffered a similar reputational loss.
The Iraq war had been a powerful recruiting tool for al-Qaeda when it was winning. No more. Osama bin Laden rendered what is called the “bandwagon effect” in international relations — the tendency of states to go along with the dominant power — in his homespun Arabic analogy of people liking the strong horse over the weak horse. In Iraq, al-Qaeda’s proverbial horse is a broken-down nag.
Roy M. Jacobsen
Post a Comment
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments