Falling dominoes, 2006 version

Gen. William Odom (ret.) has long been a critic of the Iraq War. In a column last month, he disussed how A reverse domino theory may be playing out in the Middle East Nieman Watchdog 07/17/06.

He refers to a statement by Dick Cheney that said withdrawing US forces from Iraq would lead to the collapse of US-friendly government throughout the Middle East. Odom writes:

Cheney’s assertion is a new version of the old domino theory which was invented to justify the U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Were the Communists to win there, it was claimed, a series of other countries in Southeast Asia would also fall, like dominos, to the Communist bloc, making China extremely powerful and menacing. Laos and Cambodia did fall, more or less, to China's sphere, while Vietnam stayed with the Soviet Union. But the larger U.S. aim, the containment of China, was achieved, in spite of the United States, by Soviet and North Vietnamese actions against China. And the dire consequences of the domino theory that were so widely proclaimed by hawks at the time never came to pass.

We should have learned a number of things from the Vietnam War, but most of all that unintended consequences are often the most significant outcomes. ... Thus withdrawal from Vietnam actually improved America's strategic position for turning the tide against the Soviet Union, beginning during the Carter administration and accelerating during the Reagan administration. ...

Tied down and strategically immobilized by its entanglement in Iraq, the administration has no credibility with most of its major allies. Only after it withdraws from Iraq and admits its own complicity in this spreading crisis will it be able to help stem the tide it has set in motion. Why? Upon our withdrawal, our allies will be far more likely to respond constructively to a U.S. bid to design a joint strategy for restoring regional stability in the Middle East. Decreasing the likelihood of more radical (and possibly undemocratic) regimes emerging in the Middle East requires a coalition of the major states of Europe and East Asia. It is beyond U.S. power alone.

War the Republican Party way. Nothing quite like it. But, boy, wasn't it grand back in April 2003 when our soldiers pulled down that statue of Saddam?

Of course, if Cheney and Bush inlist him up to get the place under control again, we might have to put it back up. I'm sure FOX News will explain to us then why that's something every patriot American must certainly support.

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