In the News - Surge in Troops

From the Center for American Progress - the Progress Report (12/20/2006)

History Repeats Itself

In 1991, then-Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Colin Powell, a Vietnam veteran, outlined what became known as the "Powell Doctrine": "military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged." (President Bush reiterated these points in 2000: "Whenever America uses forces in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear and the victory must be overwhelming.") Years later, the military is bogged down in Iraq in what Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) has called "an absolute replay of Vietnam." Public opinion has shifted against the war, and rather than outline an exit strategy, the White House is pushing a plan to "surge" in 15,000 to 30,000 more troops to Iraq -- over the objections of the Joint Chiefs and the vast majority of Americans. Rather than learn the lessons of Vietnam laid out by the Powell Doctrine, Bush is taking his advice from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who believes the "overriding lesson of Vietnam is to stick it out." At a time when attacks against American and Iraqi targets are at their highest levels, the nation can
ill-afford to follow Kissinger's advice.