John McCain, in a visit to San Diego yesterday tried to reaffirm why he should be elected president of the United States, but he seems to be doing a good job of hiding his inexcusable faults and blunders lately while the democrats continue to hit each other where it hurts. The gaze has shifted to the bloodbath in the center ring my friends and John McCain is over there in the corner hoping that the fight will last well into the next few months, something that could prove to be beneficial to him come the November elections.

McCain thinks we should stay in Iraq-if need be for one hundred years, maybe more…why not at that point? He was quoted at the town hall meeting in Chula Vista as saying, ““You may have heard, a long time ago, people said that my political ambitions were at an end. And I said, that I would much rather lose a campaign than to lose a war. The essential battleground is in Iraq. I can assure you we are succeeding.”

I admire John McCain for several reasons. He voted against the Bush tax cuts in 2001, he has been a proponent of climate change, he has taken a harsh stance against methods of torture and he challenged the administration on their handling of the Iraq War. But John McCain brings to mind a man by the name of John Paul Vann who also served in the Vietnam War and whose story is told in depth in the brilliant book by Neil Sheehan, “A Bright Shining Lie.” Vann was man who was so fed up with the handling of the war by three presidents, he repeatedly voiced his concerns to the press, to his friends, fellow soldiers and to those in higher military positions than himself. But his dedication to this war did not waver. After being forced from his adviser position in the army he returned as a civilian and worked for the Agency for International Development (AID) and ultimately became a Major General in the early 1970s. At this time though the extremely unpopular war was coming to a close-a result of a blatant mishandling by American officials and the revelation of this to the American media, who then disclosed the ugly truths to a angry crowd of civilians back home. During this time when asked by a Johnson administration official whether he thought the war would be over in six months, John Paul Vann answered, “No, I think we can last a lot longer than that!” Four years later in 1972 Vann was dead, in a war that buried not only John Paul Vann, but also his delusions that he could make things right in the end. Vann, who questioned the military input from generals like Paul Harkins and William Westmoreland, who cursed the catasrophe at Ap Bac, who spoke freely to New York Times reporter David Halberstam about his complaints and concerns for lives of American soldiers, became so entwined in his urge to solve the logistical problems of Vietnam, that he lost touch with everything else that was happening around him. The Viet Minh, or Viet Cong, as the American military had labeled the enemy forces, had outsmarted him, American soldiers were disheartened and the American public was up in arms over the costly war and the heavy toll it had on peoples’ lives.

The Iraq War is obviously not the Vietnam War-but it is a war that finds us in too deep at a time when Americans once again want the attention shifted to America. John McCain is right when he says the Iraq War has been mishandled, as John Paul Vann was right about the Vietnam War. John McCain was a dedicated soldier, a man who challenged higher level officials, and is apparently quick to anger. John Paul Vann was all of these things as well. But it is important to remember that the resolve to win often blinds even those who look to correct the problem. The United States entered into the war based on false pretenses, claimed victory two months later, ousted a powerful dictator, and managed to secure oil fields within the region and yet five years later we find ourselves still face to face with the problems Iraqi citizens have been facing for years. Iraq, teaming with age old infighting among the Sunni, Shia and Kurds has a long way to go before its own citizens will feel that anything will have been won, if ever. In the end it is hard to gauge who has won and who has lost when in effect war, in and of itself is the product of lost lives on both sides.

The statement by McCain saying that we could possibly still be in Iraq for 100 more years, should resonate with Americans during a time of economic crisis, an unfortunate housing crunch and deep cuts into our nation’s resources for education. It is a time when, according to Real Clear Politics polling data, 73% of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction the country has taken. Troops need to start coming home and once again the American people need to be reminded that they are not buried and forgotten in the dusty sands of Iraq.

John McCain is a Vietnam War hero and a dedicated Senator, who has proven his ability to fight not only on the battleground but also on the Senate floor for what he believes is right. But in paving a path for war, the decision should not just be left up to those who believe that we can and must win no matter what the time frame or cost.

The rugged forested terrain of the weathered war zones in Vietnam, on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, in Binh Gia, Dong Xoai and Saigon once harbored the soldiers of the Viet Minh.  Today these extensive tree-lined hills still harbor the ugly truths-and untruths of the unfortunate mishandlings during the war that became more than just blunders when over $1.4 million soldiers and $2 million civilians were killed. We are no where near that staggering number of deaths in Iraq, but the continuous loss of lives on a daily basis should come as a dire warning in a war that also started with a bright shining lie.