Domino Theory Revisited
Before the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration touted the idea that removing Saddam Hussein from power would start a "domino effect". Authoritarian regimes throughout the Middle East would fall, one after another, as democracy spread through the region.
But with the growing cost of bringing democracy to Iraq and doubts about the war's effectiveness on the rise, the Bush administration has been forced to revise their "domino theory".
From the NY Times:
It would seem that Bush has taken a page from history. Though in this case it wasn't from WWII as he might have liked but rather from another President faced with an unpopular war. As the NYT goes on to note:
The parallels between Vietnam and Iraq just keep piling up. Let's just hope we never see this one.
But with the growing cost of bringing democracy to Iraq and doubts about the war's effectiveness on the rise, the Bush administration has been forced to revise their "domino theory".
From the NY Times:
President Bush’s newest effort to rebuild eroding support for the war in Iraq features a distinct shift in approach: Rather than stressing the benefits of eventual victory, he and his top aides are beginning to lay out the grim consequences of failure....
[i]n his speech on Thursday in Salt Lake City — the first in a series to commemorate the Sept. 11 anniversary — he picked up on an approach that Gen. John P. Abizaid, Vice President Dick Cheney and others have refined in the past few months: a warning that defeat in Iraq will only move the battle elsewhere, threatening allies in the Middle East and eventually, Mr. Bush insisted, Americans “in the streets of our own cities.”
It would seem that Bush has taken a page from history. Though in this case it wasn't from WWII as he might have liked but rather from another President faced with an unpopular war. As the NYT goes on to note:
It is reminiscent of — updated for a different war, and a different time — President Lyndon B. Johnson’s adoption of the “domino theory,” in which South Vietnam’s fall could lead to Communism’s spread through Southeast Asia and beyond. In the case of Iraq, Mr. Bush’s argument boils down to a statement he quoted from General Abizaid, his top commander in the Middle East: “If we leave, they will follow us.”
The parallels between Vietnam and Iraq just keep piling up. Let's just hope we never see this one.
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