The Spectacle of Bush in Vietnam (Cont.)

[bigtree]

BUSH'S STRANGE VIETNAM VISIT

Thu Nov 23, 5:47 AM ET

What may be remembered someday as one of the strangest moments of George W. Bush's presidency took place last week in Vietnam, when he chose to mention the American defeat there in the same breath as our failing occupation of Iraq. That comparison is often made by his critics, and often elicits irritated rebuttals from the White House.

Not long after he landed in the capital of Hanoi, the president explained that the American departure from Vietnam, more than 30 years ago, should teach perseverance in Iraq. "We'll succeed," he said, "unless we quit."

Set aside the witless irony of that remark, coming from a man who quit Vietnam before he ever got there. Instead let us consider the implications of what he said, and the price that he evidently believes Americans and Iraqis ought to be willing to pay for his geopolitical folly. For what he seems to be suggesting, particularly at a time when he has supposedly been chastened by his party's midterm losses, is beyond belief -- not only as policy but as historical judgment.

By the time the United States "quit" Vietnam, the human costs of the war were staggering. More than 58,000 Americans had been killed, or roughly 20 times as many as we have lost so far in Iraq. Estimates of the number of Vietnamese military and civilian deaths range upward from two million, including hundreds of thousands poisoned by the deliberate dropping of defoliants or killed by cluster bombs and napalm. Nobody knows how many Iraqis have been killed so far, but the most careful estimates range from 30,000 to 250,000.

Even Henry Kissinger, who was willing to dispatch Vietnamese civilians by the thousands, now admits that the president's stated objectives in Iraq are beyond reach by military means. But according to the president, what we have to learn from Vietnam is that we must not "quit."

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20061123/cm_uc_crjcox/joe_conason20061123


IN THE SHADOW OF HO CHI MINH

Thu Nov 23, 5:47 AM ET

President Bush has said many dumb things in defense of his Iraq policy. Citing the Vietnam War as a model, however, is perhaps his most ludicrous yet.

This past week found the president sitting before a bust of the victorious Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, seemingly unaware that the United States lost its war with the Communist-led country. Having long and vehemently denied parallels between the invasions of Vietnam and Iraq, he nevertheless admitted now to seeing one.

"Yes," Bush said. "One lesson is that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is ... just going to take a long period of time to -- for the ideology that is hopeful, and that's an ideology of freedom, to overcome an ideology of hate. ... We'll succeed, unless we quit."

Bush seems not to have noticed that we succeeded in Vietnam precisely because we did quit the military occupation of that nation, permitting an ideology of freedom to overcome one of hate. Bush's rhetoric is frighteningly reminiscent of Richard Nixon's escalation and expansion of the Vietnam War in an attempt to buy an "honorable" exit with the blood of millions of Southeast Asians and thousands of American soldiers. In the end, a decade of bitter fighting did not prevent an ignominious U.S. departure from Saigon.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20061123/cm_uc_crrscx/robert_scheer20061123




Bush's Duck And Cover Tour

November 22, 2006
- Instead of facing our new Democratic majority like an adult, Bush is ducking around the world looking for a friend.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_061122_ducking_congress_2c_lo.htm


Mindless Escalation In Iraq

November 20, 2006 - It looks like the Bush administration is planning on gearing up to escalate our nation's involvement in Iraq
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_061120_mindless_escalation_.htm


Earworms, Decent Intervals, and Quagmires

November 19, 2006
- Bush's earworm, Kissinger, slithered out and effectively unraveled the presidential lame-duck loser's plans for a military victory in Iraq by declaring that we've lost.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_061119_earworms_2c_decent_int.htm



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[bigtree]

1. Johnson's Vietnam and Bush's Iraq

Johnson's Vietnam and Bush's Iraq

Dr Yang Sung-chul
SEOUL
23-Nov-06

SINCE World War II, the State of Texas has produced the largest number of US presidents. Among the 11, four have been either born in Texas (Dwight D Eisenhower and Lyndon B Johnson) or became presidents using Texas as their political base (George H W Bush and George W Bush), while two hailed from California (Richard M Nixon and Ronald W Reagan). The rest came from five other states.

Among the four, Johnson, a Democrat, and the current President Bush, a Republican, deserve close attention for their striking contrasts and similarities. Johnson, then vice president, became the 36th president by succeeding President John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on Nov 22, 1963. The naval incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin near the territorial waters of then North Vietnam on Aug 2 and 4 of 1964, involving the American destroyers USS Maddox and the C Turner Joy (for the second incident only) led to the Joint Resolution of US Congress on Aug 7, which authorised President Johnson "to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed forces, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty requesting assistance in the defense of freedom".

Two other events during the same year are noteworthy also. On Oct. 16, China tested its first fission nuclear weapon and the following month on Nov. 3, Johnson won the presidency with a record-breaking landslide. However, the North Vietnamese-led Tet Offensive, which began on Jan. 30, 1968, dealt a fatal blow to Johnson's political career. His popularity plummeted, and on March 30, he announced that he would not seek reelection. From him, Nixon, a Republican, inherited the war, which continued until Johnson died of a heart attack at his LBJ Ranch in Texas on Jan. 22, 1973, without witnessing the disastrous end to the war that he escalated. On April 29, 1975, the Vietnam War came to a close when the North Vietnamese forces took Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), then the capital of South Vietnam, and U.S. forces evacuated from the city. On the following day, the South Vietnamese government collapsed and the country was unified with the North Vietnamese military victory.

Like his fellow Texan LBJ, 40 years later, Bush, too, used the Joint Resolution of U.S. Congress of Oct. 14, 2002, as the legal ground for the Iraq invasion, which authorized him "to use military force, acting alone if necessary, in order to ensure that Iraq disarms any weapons of mass destruction." Presently, he is having difficulties with the Iraq War he initiated in March 2002.

Both resolutions of Johnson and Bush bear similarities . . .

more: http://www.bruneitimes.com.bn/section/opinion/23Nov2006-5.php

[MODemocrat]

4. He should be called Hanoi George

N/T

[Imagevision]

2. Bush now in Viet nam is like recent OJ. TV. - Book stunt!!

[teryang]

3. Oberman's commentary on idiot son's comment...

was great! I just watched it on you tube.

KO gives the idiot's new meme a crushing blow.

Clearly, McCain and Cheney, are followers of this stormtrooper fable about the "lesson" of the Vietnam war.