In the recent aborted assault on Shiite militias directed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, 1,000 Iraqi policemen and soldiers, including scores of officers and commanders, refused to fight. Certainly this is not the first time the Iraqi military has proved undependable. These desertions recall Vietnam. There, too, the U.S. propped up a local army that often preferred not to fight.

Now, as then, we support a corrupt, unpopular and incompetent government that knows no matter how bad it screws up, the U.S. will bail it out. Now, as then, we face a resourceful, dedicated, homegrown opposition largely motivated by our very presence. Popular Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr recently proclaimed, “If we have threatened open war until liberation, we meant war against the occupier.” As recent polls show, 60 percent of Iraqis want the U.S. out – completely out, quickly out.

Torture of captives by the U.S. and its allies and mayhem visited on the civilian population, so common in Vietnam, have also seen a rebirth in Iraq.

Yet the bad news continues. Bush and his supporters, including John McCain, know their political survival depends on painting a rosy picture of the war. In Vietnam, too, our government went to great lengths to suppress bad news. There was always “light at the end of the tunnel.” Just another surge or two would produce victory. Just one more month, one more year.

The lesson of Vietnam is simple: The U.S. should get out of Iraq now, not stick around for up to 100 years, as suggested by McCain.

Gene Clifford

Southwest Harbor