Over the past week, one of the hottest political topics has been this comparison between The War in Iraq and Vietnam. Ted Kennedy's comment that "Iraq is Bush's Vietnam" sparked all kinds of partisan name calling on the evening news. In last night's press conference, the first question asked of the President was his reaction to the comparison, which he quickly stated as "false". This comparison actually began almost a year ago however, and it won't be going away any time soon:
After Kennedy's comments, Sen. John McCain - currently a strong supporter of Bush's war in Iraq - told the AP:
Those who call Iraq another Vietnam "either have forgotten or never learned the lessons" of that war. "It's a totally false comparison and I know something about Vietnam," said McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
Interesting that just 5 months ago, McCain had this to say in a Newsweek article:
“This is the first time that I have seen a parallel to Vietnam,” McCain declared, “in terms of information that the administration is putting out versus the actual situation on the ground. I’m not saying the situation in Iraq now is as bad as Vietnam. But we have a problem in the Sunni Triangle and we should face up to it and tell the American people about it.” Also reminiscent of Vietnam, McCain said, was the administration’s reluctance to deploy forces with the urgency required for the quickest victory. “I think we can be OK, but time is not on our side... If we don’t succeed more rapidly, the challenges grow greater.”
Fact is, there are a lot of people in Washington that "know something about Vietnam". Here's a good short piece by a Vietnam Vet who asks "If we demand no other quality from a president, let it be that he use America’s power in the world for realistic goals and not squander it in needless, destructive ideological flights of fancy." Of course there are major statistical differences; Iraq has seen just over 600 dead US troops, while Vietnam amassed over 58,000 dead. But seeing the fact that a recent poll showed that 2/3 of the American people are concerned that Iraq will become another Vietnam, W nor any of his staff have given this issue the attention it deserves. Instead, we get the insulting "False. Bad message to the troops. Bad message to the enemy." The casualty gap between Iraq and Vietnam is closing every day. It seems clear that Bush is the one who "either has forgotten or never learned the lessons" of Vietnam - since he wasn't even there the first time around.