In the opinion section of the Wall Street Journal today is an interesting piece about what Iran’s version of Dr. Kissinger, Hassan Abbasi, thinks about American will. Find it here.
Here’s the essential ‘graph:
To hear Mr. Abbasi tell it the entire recent history of the U.S. could be narrated with the help of the image of “the last helicopter.” It was that image in Saigon that concluded the Vietnam War under Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter had five helicopters fleeing from the Iranian desert, leaving behind the charred corpses of eight American soldiers. Under Ronald Reagan the helicopters carried the corpses of 241 Marines murdered in their sleep in a Hezbollah suicide attack. Under the first President Bush, the helicopter flew from Safwan, in southern Iraq, with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf aboard, leaving behind Saddam Hussein’s generals, who could not believe why they had been allowed live to fight their domestic foes, and America, another day. Bill Clinton’s helicopter was a Black Hawk, downed in Mogadishu and delivering 16 American soldiers into the hands of a murderous crowd.

Here’s something you might find interesting; they all (Iran, Al Qaeda) think GW is an aberration and believe the old cut and run strategy will resume once G-4-3 is gone. The author continues in the piece about his research finding among other things that the American leader-elite don’t support a cut and run strategy. He believes 9/11 changed everything and everyone. Do YOU?