![](\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/shahed_robert.jpg\")
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
When I was invited to appear on \u201cNightline with Ted Koppel\u201d back in 1990 to debate Robert McNamara (who died yesterday at 93), I thought I\u2019d have an easy time of it. Little did I know that McNamara was entering a phase of his life where he would begin to be more introspective about war and its consequences. <\/p>\n
Needless to say, the fact that he wasn\u2019t as hawkish about the war as I had expected threw me off guard a bit. I didn\u2019t do that bad, but I won\u2019t be putting it on YouTube anytime soon.<\/p>\n
Five years after our debate, McNamara published his book \u201cIn Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam\u201d, which included these observations that later became the basis of the 2003 documentary \u201cThe Fog of War\u201d:<\/p>\n
1. We misjudged then \u2014 and we have since \u2014 the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries \u2026 and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.<\/p>\n
2. We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience \u2026 We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.<\/p>\n
3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.<\/p>\n
4. Our judgments of friend and foe, alike, reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.<\/p>\n
5. We failed then \u2014 and have since \u2014 to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces, and doctrine.<\/p>\n
6. We failed, as well, to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.<\/p>\n
7. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement \u2026 before we initiated the action.<\/p>\n
8. After the action got under way, and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course \u2026 we did not fully explain what was happening, and why we were doing what we did.<\/p>\n
9. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgement of what is in another people\u2019s or country\u2019s best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.<\/p>\n
10. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action \u2026 should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.<\/p>\n
11. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions \u2026 At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Shahed Amanullah is Editor-in-Chief of altmuslim.com<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was invited to appear on “Nightline with Ted Koppel” back in 1990 to debate Robert McNamara (who died yesterday at 93), I thought I’d have an easy time of it. Little did I know that McNamara was entering a phase of his life where he would begin to be more introspective about war and its consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asides"],"yoast_head":"\n
Obituary: Robert McNamara: The lessons of Robert McNamara<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When I was invited to appear on "Nightline with Ted Koppel" back in 1990 to debate Robert McNamara (who died yesterday at 93), I thought I'd have an easy time of it. Little did I know that McNamara was entering a phase of his life where he would begin to be more introspective about war and its consequences.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obituary: Robert McNamara: The lessons of Robert McNamara\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was invited to appear on "Nightline with Ted Koppel" back in 1990 to debate Robert McNamara (who died yesterday at 93), I thought I'd have an easy time of it. Little did I know that McNamara was entering a phase of his life where he would begin to be more introspective about war and its consequences.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-08T10:14:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/shahed_robert.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/\",\"name\":\"Obituary: Robert McNamara: The lessons of Robert McNamara\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-07-08T10:14:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-07-08T10:14:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\"},\"description\":\"When I was invited to appear on \\\"Nightline with Ted Koppel\\\" back in 1990 to debate Robert McNamara (who died yesterday at 93), I thought I'd have an easy time of it. Little did I know that McNamara was entering a phase of his life where he would begin to be more introspective about war and its consequences.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Obituary: Robert McNamara: The lessons of Robert McNamara\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics & culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\",\"name\":\"Shahed Amanullah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c9ebfb8c37dbc2e9865b291bbaeff08?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c9ebfb8c37dbc2e9865b291bbaeff08?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Shahed Amanullah\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/author\/shahedamanullah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obituary: Robert McNamara: The lessons of Robert McNamara","description":"When I was invited to appear on \"Nightline with Ted Koppel\" back in 1990 to debate Robert McNamara (who died yesterday at 93), I thought I'd have an easy time of it. Little did I know that McNamara was entering a phase of his life where he would begin to be more introspective about war and its consequences.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Obituary: Robert McNamara: The lessons of Robert McNamara","og_description":"When I was invited to appear on \"Nightline with Ted Koppel\" back in 1990 to debate Robert McNamara (who died yesterday at 93), I thought I'd have an easy time of it. Little did I know that McNamara was entering a phase of his life where he would begin to be more introspective about war and its consequences.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/","og_site_name":"altmuslim","article_published_time":"2009-07-08T10:14:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/shahed_robert.jpg"}],"author":"Shahed Amanullah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shahed Amanullah","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/","name":"Obituary: Robert McNamara: The lessons of Robert McNamara","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-07-08T10:14:50+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-08T10:14:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945"},"description":"When I was invited to appear on \"Nightline with Ted Koppel\" back in 1990 to debate Robert McNamara (who died yesterday at 93), I thought I'd have an easy time of it. Little did I know that McNamara was entering a phase of his life where he would begin to be more introspective about war and its consequences.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/07\/the_lessons_of_robert_mcnamara\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Obituary: Robert McNamara: The lessons of Robert McNamara"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/","name":"altmuslim","description":"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics & culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945","name":"Shahed Amanullah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c9ebfb8c37dbc2e9865b291bbaeff08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c9ebfb8c37dbc2e9865b291bbaeff08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Shahed Amanullah"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/author\/shahedamanullah\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}