Major New U.S. Offensive Near Syrian Border And the Lesson Of The Indochina War

The daily immoral car bombings that kill and main women and children must end. This terrible carnage against innocent civilians should immediately stop. Sunni Moslems who support the insurgency should work within new Democratic government to address any concerns in the Sunni community. But with much caution, the U.S. must not act to expand the Iraq War into Syria. The new U.S. offensive to attack insurgent strongholds near the Syrian border in Western Iraq in the city of Obedi, and nearby villages located near the Euphrates river by 1,000 U.S. soldiers backed up by attack planes and helicopters must be strickly limited to prevention of further violence in Iraq, and not become an expansion into a larger regional war in the Middle East.

But unfortunately this could be where the Iraq War is headed. History points to a similar military stalemate in Vietnam in 1970, where on May 1, President Nixon expanded U.S. combat into Cambodia to fight North Vietnamese and Viet Cong guerrilla sanctuaries in that nation. And by 1971, despite a bill by Congress that limited comat in Laos to air combat and bombing only, the war expanded into that nation as well. The Vietnam War expanded into the Indochina War with these expansions of U.S. combat to chase after NVA and Viet Cong guerrillas. Eventually all these governments became destablized, and all three nation eventually became Communist states. All this expansion of combat did was to insure that "domino prinicple" happened, not prevented it.

It might be tempting for the Bush White House to assume that chasing insurgents who may or may not be coming from parts of Syria, might seem like a logic military expansion of combat. But in the case of the "Indochina War", it proved a counterproductive military strategy. It might prove better to warn or even work with Syria to not allow their borders to used for insurgent warriors to slip into Iraq , if indeed this is where foreign fighters are comimg from. But so far the Iraq War has become a form of slow motion "Vietnam". And with the magnet for insurgent crimes against Iraqi civilians and American soldiers alike, America cannot afford an expansion of these problems into a new front in Syria, a new war with Syria, or an eventual occupation of Syria , where another 150,000 Americans would be be needed. This would of course insure a draft in America, and years of occupation with no forseeable end in sight.

History should serve as a warning in two regards. One that expanding the Vietnam War into Laos and Cambodia only insured instability in Indochina. And that in 1945, the wars with Germany and Japan ended, yet both nations still have an active American military presense. And in 1950, American soldiers first entered the Korean War, yet still maintain a presense there as well. Once you enter a military occupation situation you never leave even if it appeared you won the war, and stalemates like Korea can end up even more tense. History should warn against expanding the problems of Iraq into a regional mess. Any temptation by the White House to "solve " insurgency problems by an expansion of the war into Syria should be quickly abandoned. The current U.S. effort in Obedi, Iraq needs to be strictly limited to curtailing insurgent actions within Iraq, and not become a phase one for a new military effort in Syria.

As of today, the Iraq War has taken 1,603 American lives. And thousands of Iraqi lives. This past week suicide bombers took 300 more Iraqi lives. The carnage of war continues on a daily basis in Iraq.