OPINION:
We Americans are an impatient lot. If we must engage in warfare, then we would prefer it to be wrapped up in weeks, not months, and certainly not years like World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
In those wars, we had the draft, so more Americans were engaged in fighting and watching the progress, or lack thereof.
Today, while recruiting numbers have increased in our all-volunteer military, the taste for war among the public has declined. One of President Trump’s voter-attracting positions was his promise to end wars, not start new ones.
Granted, any candidate running for president can change his position once in office should circumstances change, as they sometimes do. That was what happened to George W. Bush after 9/11, though that war went on far too long. Although Osama bin Laden, the architect behind the terrorist attack, was eventually killed in 2011 during the Obama administration, the virus that is fanatical Islam will continue to spread if it is not stopped.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed the Iran war is expected to last “weeks, not months.” Yet Yemen’s Houthis, one of Iran’s proxies, launched an attack on Israel this weekend, their first since the Iran war began.
Setting a timeline for when a war will end is dangerous because if the prediction fails, it erodes public support, which is already low for this conflict.
A Pew Research Center poll finds: “Weeks into the U.S. military campaign against Iran, majorities of Americans say striking that country was the wrong decision and disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict.” Here is the key takeaway from the poll: “About six-in-10 Americans (61%) disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict, while 37% approve.”
My generation used to talk about “the lessons of Vietnam.” Public opinion on that war was strongly favorable at the beginning but declined rapidly as American forces got bogged down and the enemy persevered.
What were then called “hawks” initially supported the war. Only 26% were “doves.” In 1966, roughly 47% of Americans wanted to increase the fighting and believed in the domino theory: that if Vietnam fell to the communists, then surrounding nations would too.
By January 1969, as Americans were dying in much larger numbers and Americans saw the body bags on their TV screens increase, 52% of Americans said entering the war was a mistake. By 1973, that percentage had jumped to 60.
By September 1970, 55% of the public supported bringing all troops home by the end of 1971.
Vietnam remains a communist country, but signs of capitalism are more visible than before the war began.
Members of the Trump administration should stop predicting when the Iran war will end. Instead, they should hammer home the heinous goal of the religiously fanatical regime that appears to remain in control of the country, despite the killing of many of its leaders and the destruction of its navy, air force and other critical targets.
Coupled with high gas prices and the dysfunctional Congress that won’t (or can’t) end the partial government shutdown, which is frustrating travelers who must wait four or more hours at some major airports, this does not bode well for Republicans hoping to hold on to their Senate and House majorities.
Mr. Trump should deliver a nationally televised address explaining why the Iranian ruling regime must be destroyed, or it will eventually develop nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them, not only to Israel but also to the United States.
• Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (Humanix Books).
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