When it comes to foreign wars, the guiding principle should be America Smart, not just America First.
One can sense the United States is getting drawn into yet another deeply rooted conflict in the Middle East. The Pentagon reportedly is sending 10,000 additional troops, ground and naval units, to the region as a show of force to bolster peace talks with Iran during the fragile ceasefire.
An America Smart point of view would surely warn any president or Congress to end this eight-week war of choice now before it gets uglier under the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
American history is littered with disappointment over foreign wars, where home-turf advantage trumped superior military firepower.
The Revolutionary War offers a first warning. The superior British Army, marching boldly initially, was picked off by colonists who employed guerrilla tactics and terrain knowledge. This approach contributed to their eventual victory and the birth of the U.S.
Post-World War II conflicts – Korea, Vietnam, both Iraq wars, and Afghanistan – demonstrate the repeated unsatisfactory result of foreign wars.
My family lived in Asia for many years. One of our recurring trips was to Vietnam, to the jungle-scape of the Cu Chi tunnels just outside Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976).
The tunnels were first dug in the 1940s to attack the French during that country’s military occupation of Vietnam that ended in the mid-1950s. The Viet Cong, communist force guerrillas, expanded the tunnels in the run-up to the 1960s Vietnam Civil War that the U.S. unwisely joined. The Viet Cong hid their troops in the tunnels for surprise attacks above ground and booby traps below, killing many American soldiers.
My children were young during early visits and even then, when they surveyed the vastness of the Cu Chi tunnels they understood the wartime advantage of the Viet Cong underground system – which in one place existed under a main U.S. military base.
Historians Tom Mangold and John Penycate describe the jungle hiding the Cu Chi tunnels as “the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated and devastated area in warfare history.” Still, thousands of guerrillas in the tunnels survived the war.
The same logic applies to every other foreign war, including Iran. In addition to the human toll of casualties, we are spending billions of dollars on an uncertain outcome and no mutual intelligence on Iran’s nuke bomb and long-range missile capability.
The Trump administration should continue to face pressure to find a diplomatic off-ramp. In addition to the human toll, the United States is spending more than $1-billion-dollars a day. Iran’s economy, like much of its military ability, is badly weakened.
The solution is clear: End the war or history is doomed to repeat itself.
An America First strategy should be an America Smart strategy. Do not get into another prolonged conflict with a hometown advantage opponent 8,000 miles away.