Is it what they're teaching these guys…

…or what they're selling us?

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of American and Iraqi troops in the region south of Baghdad echoes General Petraeus...

General Lynch said that he and other American commanders were worried that extremist groups under attack by the additional American forces might retaliate with a spectacular, focused attack on American troops aimed at tipping the argument in Washington in favor of withdrawal. He cited what happened in South Vietnam in January 1968, when coordinated attacks by enemy troops, including one on the American embassy in Saigon, helped push President Lyndon B. Johnson into abandoning attempts to win the war. "We’re concerned about some kind of Tet offensive that’s going to affect the debate in Washington," the general said.

Is it really possible that our military leadership in Iraq is so ignorant of military and political history in the United States? As I've explained, there's a striking difference in the nature of our enemies in Iraq compared to our enemies in Vietnam. If we were fortunate enough to confront a unified insurgency in Iraq and defeat them as thoroughly as we defeated the Vietcong in 1968 it would be far more meaningful victory. Without a the invasion forces of a regular army waiting across the border for the moment of need, the a Tet-like defeat of the Iraqi insurgency would have a measure of finality that was unavailable in the wake of the victory of '68.

And for the record, Lyndon Johnson didn't abandon attempts to "win the war." He abandoned his re-election campaign in order to devote his attention to securing some kind of resolution that would be seen (could be sold) as success. The Commander in Chief for the last six years of the Vietnam war was Dick "Dick" Nixon (and lurking nearby was Dick "Dick" Cheney). If anyone lost the war, you'd have to credit the guy who spent over a half a decade engineering its resolution.

What I suspect is going on has little to do with history, though, and a lot to do with a public relations campaign that will condition Americans to suppress their horror over the continuing bloodbath in Iraq for fear of repeating the mistakes of Vietnam.

Those fears would disappear if the Generals would admit the truth about Vietnam, Iraq and the differences. Should be easy enough considering how long the official line was that there was no valid comparison in the first place.

Don't want to feel the horror? End the war.