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Last fall, when war with Iraq was looming, President Bush said that America had learned some hard lessons in Vietnam, lessons that would enable us to conduct a much more splendid little war in the Persian Gulf.
We read his lips correctly. For instance, Lyndon Johnson financed the Vietnam War through inflation, rather than taxation or borrowing. The result was an economy which careened so far out of control that millions of people actually believed that Ronald Reagan had a solution -- tax the poor and give to the rich.
Bush took that economic lesson to heart. He arranged to finance the Gulf War by turning American troops into mercenaries and hiring them out to a coalition of wealthy nations. This innovative method worked so well that last week, for the first time in a decade, the Commerce Department reported a positive balance of trade, on account of the payments from our allies.
Further, the world saw the lethal efficiency of American munitions. It was excellent advertising. Arms exports are expected to rise substantially, thus providing future improvements in the balance of trade, so that we can afford to buy more Korean VCR's and Taiwanese dry-wall screws.
America sent an army of conscripts to Vietnam. The draft has never been all that popular in certain elitist segments of our society -- i.e., people who have read the Declaration of Independence.
Further, substantial segments of our population may hold a congenital aversion to military drafts. During the 19th century, America filled up with immigrants, like Adolf Coors from Prussia, who were dodging the draft in their homelands. Millions of these new citizens worked hard and enriched a growing nation with their skills, but their descendants very likely carry some of those defective anti-authoritarian genes.
And with a draft, there is always the chance that Someone Important's son will end up under fire in some distant land, and then Someone Important might question the need for the war.
Granted, the chances are remote, as Dan Quayle's military career demonstrates, but one important military maxim is never to take needless risks. An all-volunteer military eliminates that risk.
The most significant lesson appears to be one learned from Sen. George Aiken of Vermont. Twenty years ago, he was a persistent critic of the Vietnam war. His most memorable statement was that the U.S. should just declare victory and bring the troops home.
Now consider the Persian Gulf after the war. Saddam
Worse-than-Hitler
Hussein is still very much in
power, and reportedly massing soldiers for a massacre of
his Shi'ite citizens trapped in the marches of the
Euphrates. Kuwaiti oil has yet to reach the world market;
it's burning at the wells. Kuwait is still run by a gang of
thugs who torture prisoners, imprison people for wearing
incorrect T-shirts, and perform summary executions.
Only in a George Orwell novel would that provide inspiration for all those glorious victory parades last week, but President Bush learned Aiken's lesson well, because that's exactly what he did -- declared victory and brought the troops home.
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