History Repeats Itself – Opinions From E. Curtis Johnson

I turned 15-years-old as I watched Walter Cronkite report the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnam. I’ll never forget the video of overloaded choppers pulling people off the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. America first entered Vietnam by sending military advisors. On Friday, President Obama announced we’re sending 300 advisors back to Iraq. Edmund Burke is credited with saying, “Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.” In 2014, apparently we know history so poorly that we don’t remember the war that we just got out of that we started 11-years-ago.

The President doesn’t remember that he campaigned against a war that he’s about to reenter in the same manner that America entered Vietnam. Do we remember the $730 billion we just spent, the nearly 4500 U.S. fatalities, and the 32,000 American wounded? Not only do we not remember how many Iraqi’s have died, I’ll wager we don’t even know.

I’m E. Curtis Johnson. If it’s “mission accomplished,” in Iraq, the mission must have been to repeat our mistakes.