Saturday, August 25, 2007

Ex-Iraq General: Bush 'misunderstanding' Vietnam history

I guess since Chimperator Bush and Dick "Darth Vader" Cheney both avoided serving in Vietnam - Bush because of Daddy's connections and Cheney because it "wasn't for him" - it should be no surprise that these two fascists cannot understand the true nature of what went on in Vietnam. I suggest that both men watch the film "Fog of War" wherein Robert McNamara discusses the mistakes of Vietnam. Perhaps if they had watched the film before going into Iraq, the whole debacle could have been avoided. This MSNBC quote at Raw Story is illustrative:
MSNBC's Alison Stewart interviews retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, senior adviser to VoteVets, who was in charge of training the Iraqi military in 2003 and 2004. Alison asks Gen. Eaton his take on the accuracy of President Bush's recent statement, during his Wednesday speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, that retreating from Iraq would cause the same kind of "violent reaction" that came from the United States' pullout from Vietnam.

"It's a very unfortunate trip back into history," says Eaton. "It reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Vietnam war was about. Our enemy there was the North Vietnamese Army and their proxy forces, the Viet Cong. The issue in Iraq is a religious-based civil war with al-Qaeda thrown in there to complicate the affair."

Eaton calls Bush's analogy "unfortunate," citing "untidy parallels" between the behaviors of senior civilian leadership in Vietnam and Iraq. There is a failure on the part of the Bush Administration to devote diplomatic resources, in addition to fighting troops, to help the current situation.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

When we first went into Iraq, I said to my cousins in AZ, I hope this doesn't end up being Bush's Vietnam. Foresight is wonderful sometimes. If only THEY had it. Yes Saddam would still be there, but would we have been any worse off and in hindsight the Iraqi people compared to how they are today ?? And there would have been many people both our own and other Countries including Iraq who would still be alive today. They just never learn in Washington do they ??