Yesterday’s WaPo has a front-page story by Michael Shear on how Vietnam shaped Senator John Warner’s reluctance to support President Bush’s “surge” of troops in Iraq. Good story – but he might have noted that Warner’s reluctance goes at least as far back as his August 3, 2006 appearance on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
At that time, as this blog noted on September 5, 2006, Senator Warner nailed some basic strategic and moral issues.
Warner is well aware of the Clausewitzian trinity of the Government, Army and the People and how the ever-shifting relationships among the three influence the outcome of the war. (For my April, 1991 Army magazine article how failure to understand its import led to strategic failure in Vietnam, go here.)
The just war issue of legitimate authority (Only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force or wage war) comes into play at this point. Warner grants that the President has the authority but suggests that as the causes for which the war is being fought shift, the President is close to loosing that authority. It will be up to Congress to restore it. If the President continues without it, the public, already opposed, will turn decisively against the war. Then we will lose, for much the same reason as we lost in Vietnam.
Given the reality that US troops, the national interest, and the President’s legacy are all at risk, Senator Warner is moving carefully. Still, he is raising challenge that is much more fundamental that most people recognize.
NOTE: This post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for 01/29/2007