Bobby Muller, president of Veterans for America and co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, has recently written an article for Alternet suggesting parallels between the 1968 decision by president Lyndon Johnson to increase troop levels in Vietnam (suggested by then Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford) and the recent decision by president George W. Bush to increase troops levels in Iraq (suggested by current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates).  Muller, who has been a leader of Vietnam veterans since serving and being paralyzed in that war, writes of the costs to the United States:

Today, the U.S. military is, in the words of the Pentagon, stretched “to the breaking point.” Almost 30 percent of the 1.5 million U.S. service members who have been deployed since September 11, 2001 have been deployed more than once. Thousands of members of Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) have been called up in what many term a “backdoor draft.” Military recruiters are struggling to meet their goals; the Pentagon is considering greatly increasing the number of noncitizens in the U.S. military; more than 16,000 single mothers who are in the U.S. military have been deployed. And, most importantly, more than 3,000 service members have been killed in Iraq and tens of thousands wounded. Finally, more than $350 billion has been spent on the Iraq war.

Muller went on to call on Congress to start representing the interests of the American people in opposing the so-called ’surge’, lauding Congress members from both parties who have taken a stand in opposition to the plan, and finally warning of the disasterous consequences of not learning from history.

- Peter Broady