I am old enough to remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident which launched the US military into the Vietnam quagmire. In 1965, we were already involved in South Vietnam, propping up a dictatorial regime opposed to the communists in the north. We were handed this mess by the French who threw in the towel after Dien Bien Phu.
President Lyndon Johnson went on national TV to report the North Vietnamese had treacherously attacked an American destroyer which was minding its own business in the aforementioned Gulf of Tonkin. Popular sentiment was immediately swayed and the war was on. No one asked the obvious question. Why would the North Vietnamese attack the most powerful navy on the planet and engage that military against them when they were winning the war against the South by attrition.
This same scenario is playing out in real time right now, only this time it is the Iranians. Why would they launch an attack against an American ally from their own soil and virtually ensure a hostile military response from the US. It made no sense in 1965 and it makes no sense in 2019, unless war is what our government desires.
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