NEWS AND VIEWS

General William Westmoreland is dead at 91. While he can be justifiably criticized for his tactics during the Vietnam War, in my estimation he is not the one responsible for the debacle. That can be laid squarely at the feet of Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose instincts told him quite clearly that we couldn't win the war without an all-out effort against North Vietnam but, for domestic political reasons, he was unwilling to go that route. Instead, with the advice and encouragement of Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara and General Maxwell Taylor, among others, he ordered hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, including Westmoreland, to fight a war without the possibility of victory. LBJ was the true villain of the piece, and I suspect by 1968 he knew it, which is why he withdrew from that election and died only a few years after he left office.

Nicholas Kristof continues to argue that "engagement" with North Korea is our only option. I would use the word "appeasement", or perhaps "bribery". His re-telling of the story of the U.S.S. Pueblo, and the story of how it was recently moved under the noses of U.S. and Japanese intelligence, does offer a compelling, and frustrating, backdrop for the validity of his argument. Our unwillingness to make the sacrifices necessary to fight a major war, in Korea or elsewhere, probably means his route is the best one.

This man would disagree.

Finally, here is a good news/bad news story from the Muslim world. I think it perfectly illustrates the nature of the problem, which is a civil war within Islam. This truly is about the 'hearts and minds' of Muslims. Which side the majority choose to embrace will determine the scope, length and intensity of our own war with Islamofascist terrorists.