It's sometimes known as the Iraq syndrome. The UK is caught up in it, as is America. Though not Australia. It refers to the US or the UK trying to control another country by force of arms. The current syndrome is overlaid by the history of Vietnam.

Teal

Conservatives have a real problem with the syndrome: they read it as a sign of national weakness. Only conservatives (Republicans in the US, Liberals in Australia) have the hard-headedness and the backbone to face the menace that is Islamic terrorism which is everywhere. Their cure for the Vietnam syndrome was an unabashed, militant nationalism and a broad rightward turn in the life of the United States, with its contempt for all that is reflective, critical, and pluralistic.

The conservatives now face the Iraq syndrome.

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