The Greatest Generation?

Former US Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara has died. I hope that he rests in peace and that God has mercy on his soul. However, while he was alive, he certainly made some interesting choices, some of which had disastrous results.

Heralded as the "architect of the Vietnam War" under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, McNamara attempted to win a conflict without really waging war and without applying the lessons he should have learned from World War II and the Korean War. He oversaw America's escalation in Vietnam from less than 1,000 advisers to more than 500,000 troops, and then limited the tactics of those troops. He also helped coordinate what was then the most massive bombing campaign in history, but then severely restricted the approved targets for those bombing raids. As a former officer in the WWII Army Air Corp, he should have known better. Perhaps, worst of all, he and his cohorts (namely, Kennedy and Johnson) refused to listen to their own military leaders who advised from the start that you had to move decisively against North Vietnam, that you couldn't just attempt to pacify South Vietnam and hope for a Korean War-type settlement, complete with a divided country and armed troops staring at each other across a demilitarized zone.

In spite of these hobbles placed upon the US military, hobbles that needlessly cost massive casualties, the troops still managed to win every major battle during the Vietnam War. They then saw their sacrifices go for naught because US political leaders failed to learn important lessons from earlier conflicts. Namely, they didn't learn that a military victory was only the first stage of a true victory; you then needed to also build a foreign government that was capable of governing and protecting itself. Until this latter part was completed, you had to keep combat troops on the ground even if it meant a commitment of decades, if not generations. Such were the lessons of World War II and the Korean War, lessons that our political leaders of the Vietnam War failed to apply.

Much has been made about the generation of Americans that endured the Great Depression and fought World War II. Journalist and writer Tom Brokaw has dubbed them the "Greatest Generation." And admittedly, that generation certainly showed grit, determination and fighting ability. However, it must be pointed out that the men who led our country to victory in World War II were not members of the Greatest Generation, but rather members of the earlier Victorian Generation. The truly great leaders - Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and (if you wish to add a half-American) Winston Churchill - came from that earlier generation. When the so-called Greatest Generation ultimately came to power, they largely dropped the ball when it came to waging war. They failed to lead us to victory. Among these I would include John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and, yes, Robert McNamara.

A Wait and See Week.

By all appearances, this has not been a great week for Republicans. A potential Republican presidential candidate self-destructed, a liberal judge appears destined for the Supreme Court and another Democrat is headed for the US Senate. However, I would argue that we are actually in a better position than we were previously, as long as we stick to our guns and don't lose our composure.

First of all, the loss of South Carolina's Republican Governor Mark Sanford as a possible 2012 presidential candidate was not earth shaking. Let's be realistic, until he was caught with an Argentine mistress, he was not all that well known. His weakness for the South American woman has been good material for late night talk show hosts, but happening this early in the present administration's term, it will probably harm no one but Sanford and his family. * It will be a non issue by November 2012 simply because the governor will now not be a presidential candidate. Thus, the toll on the Republican party's chances of regaining the White House will be nil. That would not have been the case if the mistress had suddenly appeared in the middle of a Sanford campaign, say in July 2012. Then, the disclosure could have damaged other Republican candidates as well as the Republic Party itself. It's good that this particular time bomb went off when it did - long before it could do some serious collateral damage.

Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor still appears headed for the Supreme Court (see my editorial of May 26, 2009). It doesn't appear that she was damaged by being overturned on the New Haven firefighters case by the very court she wishes to join. The Supreme Court wisely sided with the Caucasian firefighters who wished to be judged on their demonstrated abilities, rather than on their race. Senate Republicans need to make their case against Sotomayor during her confirmation hearings, supporting the principal that she can't seem to grasp: that racism is still racism even if it's called "affirmative action."

In the end, of course, Sotomayor will be confirmed. The Democrats simply have too many votes to stop the confirmation. But, the Republicans can still go on record as the party that seeks a color blind society and opposes any nominee, of any color or gender, who believes otherwise.

That, of course, brings us to Al Franken. After a lengthy court battle between himself and Republican Norm Coleman, Franken will now be the junior senator from Minnesota and the 60th Democratic vote in the Senate. ** This, of course, effectively eliminates the possibility of a Republican filibuster during this session. But, let's face it folks, the Republicans' chances of effectively forging a filibuster against 59 Democrats were not significantly greater than against 60. There is simply too much space between the stances of the moderates and the conservatives in the Republican party for them to stand that united, even against the opposition party. And, at least this way, neither the Democrats nor the voting public can reasonably blame the Republicans if any of the Democrats' proposals, laws or regulations bring about a worsening of our nation's troubles. The Democrats must now deal with the axiom that states: "if you break it, you own it."

I am not one of those Republicans who secretly hope that the Democrats fail, even if it means damaging our country. However, I am confident that voters in the 2010 and 2012 elections will see huge federal budget deficits, a struggling economy and a tense foreign scene. And the Democrats must now take both the blame and the credit, to be parcelled out as the voters see fit.

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*Let's give credit where credit is due. Some of the jokes about Sandford have been hilarious. I especially got a laugh out of Craig Ferguson's comment that "Oh, great! Now we're outsourcing mistresses" and Conan O'Brien's observation that "That's strange, since Republicans have historically not done well with Hispanic women."

**Due to a somewhat unique party system in Minnesota, Franken actually belongs to the Democratic Farmer Labor party. However, the Minnesota party is affiliated with the national Democratic party.