After the 9/11 attacks, Bush’s government dedicated personnel, intelligence and whatever resources they deemed fit, to catch the masterminds behind it. However, the policies applied by the military to handle this situation failed and the government needs to reconsider its stand. Using Bacevich’s article, this paper will explain the several ways in which the American government has not learned from past mistakes in Vietnam when it comes to combating foreign threats.
To put an end to foreign threats, Bush’s government vowed to liberate countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq by making them abide by the rule of law and practice social justice. This meant that the residents of these countries had to change even if it meant the application of American power over them. Liberating the locals would make them (Afghans and Iraqis) attain freedom and in this case, freedom positions America in a superior spot since to them its synonymous with dominion. Liberating them turned out to be a more complicated feat and failed horribly, returning zero positive results.
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Following the failure of the strategy of transformation and nation building, the alternative means of securing American borders resulted in the creation of local militaries that were capable of maintaining law and order in these war-torn countries. According to Bacevich, President Bush and Obama lowered the expectations as to what the new military demands would achieve. T he Pentagon was ordered to upgrade its efforts, although this approach of building local armies had already failed in Vietnam in what was dubbed as “Vietnamization”. This action clearly shows the failure of the American government to learn from the past which led to the exhaustion of patients of the American people as well as the US military.
Bacevich finally exposes the inadequacies of the US government to learn from past mistakes by quoting the Gulf War of 1991. The Operation Desert Storm was a huge success and eliminated all bad memories from previously failed tactics such as democratization and Vietnamization which cost billions of dollars. However, the self-congratulatory evaluation caused the US troops not to prepare for any further challenges which would have occurred in the future as seen after 9/11. The troops found themselves in an insurmountable problem all over again.
Conclusion
It goes without saying that to err is human but what defines a person or a country is how they react from their mistakes. The ability to learn from past mistakes, in this case, would help the American government avoid repeating the same mistake all over again. In the end, however, Bacevich advices the US to forge the notion that Pentagon possesses the gift of setting up foreign military forces. Since the US are essentially clueless when it comes to training and arming foreign armies, they should be prudent in their future decisions.
