Trump's Vision of Perpetual Imperial War
Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese-American novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen reflects on how the war in Iran shows, yet again, that the US has learned the wrong lessons from Viet Nam.
What the United States is doing in Iran shows, once again, that the United States has learned the wrong lessons from its war in Viet Nam, which remains an important measure of war strategy for the United States. The wrong lessons include believing that overwhelming military force will lead to victory, as well as supporting an anti-democratic, authoritarian ally in South Viet Nam and Israel. South Viet Nam disappeared after 1975 without American support, and Israel’s policies of occupation and apartheid in Gaza and the West Bank, its erosion of democracy for its citizens, and its reliance on ever-more expansive and ever-more violent use of military power have only been possible with that support. That power has culminated – but probably not concluded – with genocide in Gaza and a return to invading Lebanon, parallel actions and a parallel war to the American attack on Iran.