Viet Iraq Nam

Ron has been really nice to me, inviting me to post and giving my blog feed a prominent space so I try to save up good stuff or out of ordinary stuff for MEJ, but I'm cross posting this because I'm pissed off. I was 18 in time for the 'Nam draft and it's not some exercise in history books for me. So...

Let me see how this works, GWB awol TX ANG along with 5x deferred Dick and the rest of the chickenhawks NOW want to say Viet Nam and Iraq in the same sentence. Not in 2004 when the quagmire aspect started to get obvious, but now a couple weeks before the White House tells Congress what it thinks Gen. Petraeus ought to say. No, despite the BushCo insistence for months that Patraeus would report, the White House will do the report. We are now on the umpteenth iteration of "new and improved" plans that will save the day.



The same team that brought you the war in Iraq tells you that we ran away in Viet Nam and emboldened the terrorists and cost thousands (millions) of lives there and that is what will happen in Iraq, and the defeat will bring terrorist home to us. I really can't think of a much more stupid and dangerous analogy to run with. Not one Admin. ever told the American public the truth about Viet Nam - Tonkein Gulf Resolution/WMDs & 9/11, the SVN government never had wide support with its citizens, that government was corrupt, our troops were never sure who was an enemy outside uniformed NVA, we used conventional troops against guerrilla troops, we did not win "hearts and minds," we won every pitched conventional battle, the American public finally lost patience, the war was primarily fought by the poor and blue collar, we destabilized the region, we spent blood and treasure on a cause that their civilian populace didn't care about, and made ourselves unpopular with our ordinary allies. There was, also, the Domino Theory, you know the one... Each year the war got bigger and bigger and always right around the corner was the final resolution. There never was a political settlement in the country and its army, for the most part, stunk. There are two real big differences, rain and race. Communism is essentially a sort of religion and the Saigon government was one of personality not law - another form of religion government. Most of the people were dedicated to the proposition of staying alive and getting by, not noble causes.



The dead-enders insist the "libbers" lost 'Nam, I'd be surprised to hear that Henry Kissinger ever thought of himself in those terms and Nixon - well, I guess an unpopular war and anti-democracy actions by presidents may go hand in hand, along with patriotism/treason rhetoric Militarists insist that Viet Nam was over managed by politicians, then deny that it is exactly what is happening in Iraq.



I admit it, I'm still trying to figure out how anybody thought invading Iraq was a good idea, I cannot understand the logic. Now that we have a nice little religious civil war going I can't seem to wrap my head around the idea that it is "our" war. GHWB refused to do it, before sanctions had crushed Iraq's economy and infrastructure, but the failed son just had to try to "one up" the old man, and pulled another of his inimitable failures. At election time people chose to ignore that this is the guy that could wreck an oil company - even with all the family oil connections - and a professional ball club, so he became President and now....

OK, this is a rant. It's not well written and damn near foams at the mouth, this kind of stupidity drives me nuts, see if you can manage not to go nuts, also.