The war in Iraq is beginning to feel like another Vietnam.

That's not a good feeling.

You would think that America's military and the politicians learned through Vietnam that it's not the might of the United States of America that's crucial in the rebuilding of Iraq, but rather the will of the Iraqi people to want to re-build their own country.

In other words, this is not a situation that we can totally control. We can send our men and women and materials and training and expertise over to Iraq by the truckloads, but if the Iraqi people don't seize upon the moment to use those men and woman and materials and training and expertise -- it will be all for naught.

This past week, President Bush, after several months of consultations with just about everybody, outlined during a nationally televised address his future strategy for winning the war in Iraq.

Not surprisingly, he called for more troops to go to Iraq. That decision, to escalate the war in Iraq by pouring in more troops, has been set in the president's mind for some time.

Bush also outlined some other strategies for the war in Iraq, but I'm going to stick with observations about the main part of this plan -- more troops.

This is wrong.

Sending more troops to Iraq is the wrong message to send to us as Americans, to the world in general and our military specifically.

I consider myself a student of history, and one of my favorite historical subjects has been former President Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas.

LBJ, pushed into the presidency with the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and then given a full, four-year term in a landslide vote against Republican Barry Goldwater, was a man who understood the reins of power.

Through his political will, he bent the U.S. Congress to his grandiose plans, whether they be "The Great Society," his attempt to declare war on poverty in America, or the landmark Civil Rights legislation that shook up his beloved South.

However, Johnson had one item on his plate that he just couldn't get his arms around: Vietnam.

Possessing the new technology of the guided missile armaments, Johnson tried to bomb the North Vietnamese into the Stone Age to win the Vietnam war.

Through that bombing, and additional troop deployments, Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, believing that if more soldiers were fighting, the tide would turn in Vietnam.

Sadly, it didn't, and America collectively limped home from Vietnam -- as Cambodia fell and we continued to ask questions.

Now many years later, we are ready to make the same mistake again.

I agree with majority who replied to a recent online poll on www.marshallnews.com, about the war. The results:

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Of President Bush's options on Iraq, he should:

345 votes cast

Unfortunately, the president has made up his mind to send in more troops and my opinion or the opinions of our readers won't change that decision.

But it would be far better to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis to run.

Mason is the editor of The Marshall Democrat-News.

Spectrum appears Friday.