H08350
Headlines : IraqBush's Top 10 'Vietnam' Mistakes
Early in the Iraq war, even many of the war’s opponents agreed with the administration’s claims that Iraq should not be compared to Vietnam. As the war has dragged on and the insurgency has gained momentum, comparisons to Vietnam have become more and more valid and obvious. Even Bush’s “exit strategy” sounds like Nixon’s policy of “Vietnamization” — we’ll train the Iraq army and when they can take over the fight, we can leave “honorably”. I expect that’s going to work out as well in Iraq as it did in Vietnam. Don’t the Republicans like to quote the adage that “those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it”?
So, without further adieu, here are the 10 major mistakes the U.S. made in Vietnam that are being repeated in Iraq.
[Posted By rocketjam]Republished from ConsortiumNews.com
Editor’s Note: George W. Bush likes to toss around the words “democracy,” “liberty” and “freedom” as justifications for almost everything he does — much as Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon did during the Vietnam War.
But Bush has taken the abuse of language to new Orwellian depths by declaring his commitment to these hallowed concepts even as he asserts that he is the one who decides whether American citizens have any of the rights guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
In many ways, America’s “unalienable” rights have ceased to exist under Bush’s theory of his own authority. They have been trumped by Bush’s claim of “plenary” — or unlimited — powers as Commander in Chief during the War on Terror, a vague conflict likely to last forever.
Like some modern-day monarch, Bush says he is the one who decides if someone is imprisoned without trial, spied on without a court warrant, tortured, even murdered — all in the name of defending American freedoms against enemies who “hate our freedoms.”
_Yet even as Bush has pushed the limits of his authority far beyond what presidents of the Vietnam era dared do, there are still lessons that can be learned by reviewing…
Posted by rocketjam
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MY FATHER FOUGHT IN VIETNAM, AND CAME BACK WITH A PURPLE HEART, TERRIBLE MEMORIES OF HIS COMRADES DYING, AND A 1.5” SCAR ABOVE HIS HEART THAT HIT A BONE, AND DEFLECTED UP. HOW MANY PEOPLE MUST DIE BEFORE WE REALIZE WE CAN NOT WIN IN IRAQ, NOT BECAUSE WE ARE WEAK BUT BECAUSE WE ARE NOT IN IRAQ FOR THE RIGHT REASONS. NO WAR IS GOOD, AND ITS TIME FOR THESE-CHICKEN HAWKS TO DO SOME FIGHTING THEMSELVES. TO THOSE 40% OF AMERICANS WHO SUPPORT THIS WAR OF PROFITS AND LIES, LETS START A LOTTERY DRAFT, SUCH AS THE ONE IN 1969, THAT LEFT NO DEFERMENTS, AND THE WAR WILL BE OVER IN A MONTH. AMERICANS WHO SUPPORT THIS WAR, SUPPORT IT KNOWING DAM WELL , THEIR KIDS WILL NOT DIE IN A DESERT.
BY THE WAY HE WAS DRAFTED, 1968, SUMMER, 18 YEARS OF AGE. HOWS THAT FOR A GREAT FIGHTING AGE, U AINT OLD ENOUGH TO DRINK, BUT UR OLD ENOUGH TO DIE
Good comments, but STOP YELLING!
Another thing about Vietnam — the U.S. was there for over 10 years. My dad was there as an Air Force pilot in ’66. I was one year away from draft age when the U.S. finally pulled out in ’75.
I had a friend that recently died who served in Vietnam, got the silver star, thats the medal right below the MOH, and purple hearts. He got those spending a few days in the jungle with his PB captian bitching out and he defending the boat from NVA/VC. He said this war is like Vietnam and that were making the same mistakes. Sending thousands of troops off to get killed and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians is not the way to seek revenge for the death of three thousand of your own civilians. I could have smashed Bushs face in when he called John Murtha and Max Kleelan, who both fought the war Bush was huffing coke through, Kleelan of which lost three limbs, unpatriotic. FUCK YOU YOU SMACK HEAD ALCHOLOLIC CUNTRAG!!!, this shitstabber uses the troops for PR when their not around to speak but as soon as one of em, or their relatives, tells it like it is he has the fucking nerve to call them unpatriotic and unamerican, you know what you do with people like him, you fucking hang em…
involvement in a backwater country that was hardly strategic to the United States
Ah, but Vietnam has oil. Johnson was from Texas.
Another thing about Vietnam—the U.S. was there for over 10 years
And they’ve been in Iraq for three. Bush says some future president will pull the troops out. That’s 2008 or more, so they’ll be there for at least 5 years, probably more. Time flies man, 10 years is like 10 weeks.
Peace.Shit Vietnam was a fuckin DOMINO for christ sakes and everyone knows how dangerous dominoes are, shit they can FALL on you, and you dont want to be standing under any godamned big motherfucker domino if it falls mate.
Just think what would have happened if the Vietnamese would have won the war. There would have been great big fucking dominoes fallin ALL OVER SE Asia. No one would have been safe from gigantic falling fuckin dominoes, hell the peace lovin free democratic world would have been in terrible peril of fallin dominoes if those little yellow VC would have won the …........... wait a minute…. what was that ….......who won?.........well who fuckin lost?...........No shit…........What about the dominoes…......They didnt…........not one….....none anywhere…....Ill be fucked…......shit…...... Now Iraq is different. Its all about Weapons of Mass Destruction. The entire peace lovin free democratic world would have been in terrible peril if we didnt go into Iraq and get all of those godamned WMDs. Just imagine what would have happened if ….....................................................................................................................................
maybe they moved the WMDs to Iran. That’s only 1 letter over!
Peace.WELL WE COULDNT LOSE IN VIETNAM, WE LOST, NOTHING HAPPENED, WE CANT LOSE IN IRAQ, WE’LL LOSE, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. WHY DOESNT THE WORLD INVADE US AND TAKE OUT OUR OPPRESSIVE DICTATOR?
WHY DOESNT THE WORLD INVADE US AND TAKE OUT OUR OPPRESSIVE DICTATOR
I’m sure many Iraqis said the same thing.
Peace.A: It’s not cricket.
YEA IM ALSO SURE THEY SAID “ HOPEFULLY A FOERIGN COUNTRY WILL INVADE US, LEADING US TO KILL EACH OTHER AND TAKE OUT OIL AS WE FIGHT OURSELVES.” YOUR NAME DOES GIVE INSIGHT HOWEVER
THANKS MAC! NICE TO HAVE YOU INVOLVED IN THIS DISCUSSION!
Peace.“maybe they moved the WMDs to Iran. That’s only 1 letter over!”
No no no no no no no.
Now get this right cause its very important. These things have to be done in the correct order.
They moved the WMD to Syria, thats S-Y-R-I-A, Ok.
Iran, I-R-A-N, is sending IE devices, and other nefarious support, to the Iraqi insurgents and developing Nuc Weapons, opressing women, kicking small dogs,etc.
I mean both desperately need to be nuked back to the cretaceous period but you must get the reasons right.
Syria and Iran did sign a pact to protect each other in case one of them was attacked. Wombat you might be on to something.
Peace.I KNOW, IVE TOLD UR MOM THAT, SOMEDAY SHE’LL GET IT, UP HER ASS AGAIN
PEACE
LOL
We did not lose Viet Nam… It was a dam war for profit, Johnson himself had stock options in Bell Helicopter.
After what this country did in the Pacific theatre of WWII in three years, fighting a truly fanatical enemy who would rather die for the emperor, (who they thought was a GOD) than surrender… No way will I believe we lost that war. The young people at the time, especially the veterans coming home, realized this was a conflict for profit and went into the streets to protest it.
This war that continues is for profit and probably designed to last. After Baghdad fell all this administration had to do was invest in rebuilding the country and putting people back to work again… But NOOOOOO, Halliburton took the cash for rebuilding, (your tax dollars) and sat on it, put it into money market accounts and collected interest. And are now stealing as much as they can.
All I can say is every one of you people bitching in here (the Americans), Had better get your asses to the polls and vote this fall. Fire who ever is the incumbent and vote independent party when you have that option. If they steal the vote again… hit the streets.
Hey makaveli You are a young person… Are you registered to vote??
yes i vote, second of all, i was repeating what our “elected” administrations said, not my opinion, im with you all the way
Makaveli wrote:
“WHY DOESNT THE WORLD INVADE US AND TAKE OUT OUR OPPRESSIVE DICTATOR?”
Why don’t you do it yourself? That is what the Right to Bear Arms is truly for, isn’t it? Not to protect your property, but to defend the very Constitution from a meddling government.
There, I said it. It’s raising the red flags left and right, and I bet the CIA is in contact with my government to have me arrested as we speak…And I do mean “take out” in the strongest sense of the phrase, just do you didn’t think I was beating around the Bush.
Bush is just a puppet… The people needed to be made uncomfortable are the corporate lobbyist… Pharmaceuticals, Insurance, Defense, Banking… ect.
Hell.. if Bush continues to draw poor ratings they will just make a fool of him (which he already is), and turn on him… and maybe worse.
Has fragging begun yet? Whorefying the capital women? Heroine smuggling in body bags? Soldiers taking drugs? Russian Rulette with the locals? Maybe these exceptions emphasize the important similarities. But, still.