Our history lessons gloss over the war's aftermath precisely because Vietnam became the slaughterhouse that war supporters had predicted

One philosophy is that an American retreat from Iraq will actually have a stabilizing effect on the country. This tired old argument is usually some variation of the idea that U.S. troops are "driving the insurgency," that the only reason there is violence in Iraq is because there is a target: U.S. troops. Simply remove the troops and peace will fall on Iraq like rain.

Thus writes Benjamin Duffy.

I have never heard of a war being won by retreating, but let's analyze this. If going home now were all we had to do to pacify Iraq, I would support the policy. But are U.S. troops really the only target? Of course not. They aren't even the main target. Iraqis are killing Iraqis in far greater numbers than Iraqis are killing Americans. Removing the Americans will not make the terrorists lay down their arms.

Since Iraq is always being compared to Vietnam, Benjamin Duffy tackles that next.

Don't worry if you don't know much about the aftermath of American retreat from Vietnam. Our history lessons gloss over the subject precisely because Vietnam became the slaughterhouse that war supporters had predicted. Much to the embarrassment of John Kerry, nothing vaguely resembling peace materialized.

After our troops came home, North Vietnam attacked South Vietnam in direct violation of the Paris Peace Accords. One million dissidents were herded into "re-education" camps under deplorable conditions, and some were not released until 1986. The victorious communists executed 65,000 Vietnamese, and that does not include those who died slowly in the "re-education" camps, for which there are no reliable figures. A flood of 800,000 Vietnamese "boat people" fled onto the dangerous high seas, where many drowned. And above all, the power vacuum remaining after American retreat led like night into day to the rise of Pol Pot in Cambodia, and his massacre of 1.7 million people, or about a quarter of the population.

The war supporters' predictions were validated because they understood that such atrocities always follow communist victories. Unfortunately, we allowed ourselves to be worn down by a domestic "anti-war" movement that made victory impossible. The rest is history.

Benjamin Duffy ends with the following conclusion:

Don't be fooled by the Left's imagery of peace. They would have you believe that going home now will make violence in Iraq disappear, when in fact it is a recipe for disaster.

Information from Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First by Mona Charen was used in this article.