We have met the enemy and he is us

D. W. Duncan, 79, Vietnam  Veteran and Critic, Dies, actually seven years ago. Its a testament to the New York Times to put up this obituary when they found out despite these many years having past.  What's pertinent about Duncan's antiwar protest was the observation of how motivated the Vietcong were in contrast to the South Vietnamese regular army who deserted and some even joined the other side and the more money and weapons the U.S. put into the effort to stop Ho Chi Minh, the worse it got. It was as if we never studied George Washington's strategy through our revolutionary war with Britain to wear them out so its baffling that we don't understand today how an indigenous motivated force can wear us out in Afghanistan or Iraq.  Its baffling how we draw on military power rather than political power so that we ignore real and decent political power with a motivated militia that can be a building block to pacify the Middle East but sacrifice our blood and treasure for an inane Domino theory in Vietnam or self inflicted myopic hurdle to keep nations in civil war together; nations that have reached a critical mass of hate and revenge so that they will explode no matter how tight a lid we try to keep on them.