Daniel Ellsberg: US Will Repeat Old Mistakes and It's 'Not Going to Eliminate ISIS'

By MintPress News

22 March 16

Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg compared President Bush’s claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident that ignited the Vietnam War.

intPress News is proud to host “Lied to Death,” a 13-part audio conversation between famed whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and social justice activist Arn Menconi.

Menconi wrote that these interviews are a “mixture of historical, political science and Dan’s sixty-year scholarly analysis as a former nuclear planner for Rand Corporation.”

For more information on the interview and Ellsberg, see the introduction to this series.

Chapter 9: American ‘hubris’ will create more blowback in the Middle East

In this chapter, Ellsberg compares America’s military strategy in the Middle East to its strategy during the Vietnam War, illustrating how imperial ambition and “hubris” lead the United States to repeat the same mistakes time and again.

During the Vietnam War, he said, the U.S. removed most South Vietnamese generals and government officials from power. While their replacements were more loyal to America and could be trusted not to negotiate with communist forces, they were far less experienced than their predecessors.

“They really were absolutely terrible,” Ellsberg emphasized. “They had no ability to run a country or a military campaign.”

Similarly, he said, when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 and deposed the country’s president, Saddam Hussein, the military also eliminated the Sunni-dominated Baath party, which had run most of Hussein’s government. This not only created a power vacuum in the country, but also contributed significantly to the rise of Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the terrorist group commonly known in the West as ISIS or ISIL) by forcing moderate Sunnis into alliances with extremists to better oppose the U.S.

Ellsberg also pointed out another similarity between the wars in Vietnam and Iraq: both were based on lies. The whistleblower said that when the Bush administration claimed to have absolute proof of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, “[t]hat was as much of a lie as the alleged evidence of an attack on our ships in the Tonkin Gulf.”

In the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the U.S. fabricated claims that the USS Maddox had been attacked by North Vietnamese forces. The claimed attacks were later used to justify putting boots on the ground.

In fact, as Ellsberg pointed out, according to a 2003 White House memo published in 2006, President George W. Bush proposed a similar plan to British Prime Minister Tony Blair by suggesting that their nations fly a jet painted in United Nations colors over Iraq in the hopes that Hussein’s forces would fire on it in violation of international law.

Ellsberg drew another parallel between the foreign policy of the past and present: the belief that any war can be won with enough boots on the ground. Just as the Joint Chiefs of Staff urged President John F. Kennedy to commit massive amounts of ground troops to the Vietnam War, Ellsberg believes the Pentagon also pressured President Barack Obama into agreeing to a “surge” in Afghanistan. He suggested the buildup in U.S. military ground forces announced in 2009 had been planned for some time, and that U.S. generals like David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal had threatened to oppose Obama’s re-election if he did not agree.

Now, he believes the Pentagon is pressuring the White House to commit to putting boots on the ground to fight Daesh. Unlike the Vietnam War era, when the pressure was merely internal, Ellsberg noted the military now openly opposes Obama in the media.

However, he argued that rather than eliminating Daesh, the old, deadly mistake of putting boots on the ground will likely strengthen the organization.

Watch Chapter 9: American ‘hubris’ will create more blowback in the Middle East: