08/22/2007
Bush to Compare Iraq with Vietnam in Speech to Vets
President Bush will discuss troop withdrawal to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) group in a speech on Wednesday, according to excerpts released yesterday, warning that what happened in Vietnam could also happen in Iraq should the U.S. decide to leave hastily.
"Many argued that if we pulled out, there would be no consequences for the Vietnamese people," Bush will tell the Vets. "The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation, torture, or execution. In Vietnam, former American allies, government workers, intellectuals, and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of thousands perished. Hundreds of thousands more fled the country on rickety boats, many of them going to their graves in the South China Sea."
More: "As they take the initiative from the enemy, they have a question: Will their elected leaders in Washington pull the rug out from under them just as they are gaining momentum and changing the dynamic on the ground in Iraq? My answer is clear: We will support our troops, we will support our commanders, and we will give them everything they need to succeed. Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left. Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of Americas withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps,' and 'killing fields'."
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The image above is from "Purple Hearts", an exhibit of Nina Berman's photographs exploring "the physical and psychological repercussions of the individuals who have served in Iraq and returned home -- portraits taken in soldiers' homes, in military hospitals, and on Army bases across the U.S."
James Wagner offers a write-up of the show, which is at the Jen Bekman gallery in New York until August 30.
Bush lashes out at Iraq war critics [associated foreign press]
"Purple Hearts" at Jen Bekman [james wagner]
Posted 10:00 AM EST by Andy in George W. Bush, Iraq, News | Permalink
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Bush will say anything to get what he wants. Maybe they should put him in the Big Brother house. I'm sure he'd out-manipulate any other contestant.
Posted by: MT | Aug 22, 2007 10:05:49 AM
Guess this A-hole of a President should have thought about that before he went to war and should have noticed he had no exit strategy. Or he should have watched the tape of his A-hole Veep about going to war in Iraq in 1994. Stupid bastards !!!
Posted by: vince | Aug 22, 2007 10:10:55 AM
More lies from Bush. This is news?
Posted by: the queen | Aug 22, 2007 10:29:09 AM
I know he's a dimwit, but, why compare a war that was LOST to one he is now LOSING? I know that the so called "American" people are easily duped by this boob, but, come on now this is a stretch even for him.
Posted by: Sebastian | Aug 22, 2007 10:43:46 AM
I can't understand why Americans haven't taken to the streets and thrown his ass out of office? If 3 million people showed up outside the White House demanding his resignation, I'm sure he would have no choice. Christ, Clinton almost got impeached over a b/j. Thousands have died because of his lies and stupidity and the majority of Americans have done nothing?
Posted by: secretagentman | Aug 22, 2007 11:08:43 AM
The American People had nothing to do with the impeachment of Clinton. There were no throngs of people screaming about a blowjob. No one cared, other than the disgusting Republicunts who had to do something to hurt the opposing team.
The sad thing about the Bush regime now is that there is SO MUCH corrupt behavior that the American Public has become numb to it.
Posted by: Gregg | Aug 22, 2007 11:31:37 AM
...I hate when the troops and foreign civilians are used to emotionally blackmail Americans...and I don't think most who oppose the Iraq war are unpatriotic or against freedom beyond U.S. borders, but are against unnecessary bloodshed and the increasing body count...or is it having to face the sad reality that everything we have in this great land of ours is based on war and death?
Posted by: yeahisaidit | Aug 22, 2007 11:49:10 AM
one thing we learned from Vietnam, is that you can ditch serving your country and still become president.
Posted by: A.J. | Aug 22, 2007 11:56:27 AM
I wish you would mention in the body of your posting that the article also quotes historian Robert Dallak, who reminds us that the bloodbath that Bush says took place because of our withdrawal from Vietnam actually took place because we bombed Cambodia and de-stabilized the country in the first place.
Any possible bloodbath in Iraq will not be the result of our withdrawal of military forces but because of our pre-emptive invasion that was badly planned and badly executed.
Posted by: Fred Turpin | Aug 22, 2007 12:08:56 PM
The bloody death tolls in Vietnam and Cambodia, now reoccurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, are the sole responsibility of American politicians in both parties who initiated and supported US military aggression in those regions. The same is true of the bloody civil wars that erupted because of the disruptive effects of the ferocious levels of US military violence.
Vietnam was invaded by a Democrat 'peace' administration with the backing of a Democrat Congress supported by Republicans. The invasion and escalation were based on a massive campaign of fabrications and lies by LBJ’s administration. Nixon continued LBJ’s policies until the US military was decisively defeated by the Vietnamese and the American antiwar movement. When they saw that the US Army was disintegrating they ran, abandoning their ‘allies.’
The invasion and ensuing escalations in Iraq are the responsibility of a Republican administration and Congress with Democrat backing, including Hillary Clinton, who is poised to replay the Nixon role after the 2008 elections.
You only need to know three things about these wars.
They are wars led and backed by Democrats and Republicans. They belong to the them, not us.
They are unnecessary wars based on the shameful lies of cowards and gangsters, i.e., Democrat and Republican Presidents and Congress members.
They are costly wars. Vietnam resulted in the deaths of over million civilian lives, and probably much more - they were killed too fast to count. 58,219 GI’s mostly young and mostly working class were killed and 153,356 were wounded. Iraq has cost the lives of as many tens of thousands and like Vietnam an accurate civilian death toll is not available. As of today 3,722 GI’s are dead and 15,112 GI’s have been wounded and tossed back into the maelstrom, plus 12,297 GI’s have incapacitating wounds.
Don’t worry about the costs in spending or the inflation that will smolder through the economy for a decade or so, like it did after Vietnam. Worry about the dead and wounded and ask yourself how many more will fall before we force an end to it.
Posted by: Bill Perdue | Aug 22, 2007 3:15:17 PM
President Eisenhower introduced the US to Viet Nam at the behest of the French to protect Michelin rubber plantations (circa 1954). Ike sent about 500 full time "military advisers/trainers" and CIA operatives. JFK gradually increased the number of advisers and introduced the first combat troops after being pushed by the CIA and buying into the "domino theory" that Viet Nam and then all of SE Asia would fall to the communists. LBJ escalated the war as did Nixon.
The war was brought to an end mainly because of the draft and the anger of the American people as demonstrated by large anti-war groups willing to confront the government. One of the lessons learned from Viet Nam was to eliminate the draft and employ a semi-privatized, professional military. People opposed the war in Viet Nam because they had family, friends and neighbors who were being called to fight and die and be maimed in an endless war. They also saw, night after night in their own homes the death, destruction and horror of war on TV, in living color. Then of course Walter Cronkite turned against the war and LBJ knew he was lost. Today, very few people have any personal involvement in the war, so there is not much of a concerted effort to stop it. Nor do you see the returning coffins, body bags or the the horribly wounded on your TV or any where else on a regular basis. Nor is there today a journalist with the nationwide respect of Walter Cronkite.
This war will not end anytime soon, regardless of who is in the WH. To end this war quickly, start drafting American kids, without deferment or exemption into the military. Show the face of war on the 24 hour news channels. Then you'll see people in the streets demanding an end to this war. Otherwise, the band will play on...
Posted by: Tom | Aug 22, 2007 8:12:56 PM
It's true that the draft was an important factor in the growth of the antiwar movement but the anti-draft movement was never as large as anti-draft sentiment. The draft was aimed squarely at young working men and for the most part they went in, feeling they had no choice because Daddy couldn't and wouldn't support a 5 year vacation in Sweden. The anti draft movement was primarily a a campus-based movement.
It's what these young men did when they got in that changed everything. Antiwar sentiment was always very high among draftees and as the war dragged on it took active forms - lots of fragging, the formation of active duty antiar groups here and in Vietnam, individual and unit mutinies, overflowing brigs, and disasterous military operations characterized by timidity and a marked lack of enthusiam. This, combined with the steelhard resistance of the Vietnamese and the enormous growth of antiwar sentiment led to the biggest and last offensive of the Veitnam war which bravely and boldy drove on until it reached San Diego on April 30, 1975.
Posted by: Bill Perdue | Aug 22, 2007 9:01:10 PM
First the piece of shit in the Oval Office told us major combat operations had ended and all was 'Mission Accomplished'. Then he told us we had 'liberated' almost all of Iraq save for a few isolated pockets of Baathist insurgents. Next it was 'Iraq has held its first Democratic elections and things are on track'. That became 'Stay the course' and eventually we will prevail. And finally we've arrived at '...they are gaining momentum...'. I swear I think if we bend the rules and let this jackass stay in office for four more years we *might* eventually get to a point where he can admit that this has been an absolute debacle.
Posted by: peterparker | Aug 22, 2007 11:39:41 PM