President Barack H. Obama in his September 10 speech, announcing military re-engagement using American air power in Iraq and possibly Syria to combat the ISIS terrorist group: “American power can make a decisive difference, but we cannot do for Iraqis what they must do for themselves, nor can we take the place of Arab partners in securing their region.”

President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 on his promise to resist deepening military involvement in Vietnam: “We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” By 1967, there were 549,000 American troops in Vietnam. More than 47,000 of them died in Vietnam.

© 2014 Editorial Enterprises, Inc., and Donald C. Sarvey