domino effect, take 2

In all the obvious comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam, especially as regards the right-wing delusion about how the old war ended and how this one ought to ("We'll succeed unless we quit"--see Keith Olbermann on that gem), why is it that no one is pointing out that the new Republican talking point about how losing Iraq would create a ripple effect of new terrorists all over the Middle East is an awful lot like the so categorically disproven domino effect that led us into Vietnam (and Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, even Chile, indirectly)? It's painfully clear that our presence in Iraq (and Israel/Palestine, and Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia) encourages the rage and resentment that produces the terrifying and incredibly sad violence that so many people, who might otherwise be peaceful, are perpetrating there now. Their main complaint, right now, is that we're still there. Just like we radicalized a huge group of Vietnamese communists into using terrorist and guerrilla tactics against us and each other there, we've radicalized a huge group of Iraqis to do the same in their own country. It seems like the quagmire in Iraq, and the rhetoric surrounding it, rhymes more and more with Vietnam all the time.