[Vision2020] Bush to Invoke Vietnam in Arguing Against Iraq Pullout

[Tom Hansen]

Bush to invoke Vietnam in defending Iraq, because that one worked out so
well.

>From CNN at:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/21/bush.iraq.speech/index.html

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Bush to invoke Vietnam in arguing against Iraq pullout

Bush to say that withdrawing from Vietnam emboldened today's terrorists

Speech will be latest White House attempt to try to reframe the debate over
Iraq

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As he awaits a crucial progress report on Iraq,
President Bush will try to put a twist on comparisons of the war to Vietnam
by invoking the historical lessons of that conflict to argue against pulling
out.

On Wednesday in Kansas City, Missouri, Bush will tell members of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars that "then, as now, people argued that the real
problem was America's presence and that if we would just withdraw, the
killing would end," according to speech excerpts released Tuesday by the
White House.

"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the
Vietnam War and how we left," Bush will say.

"Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam
is that the price of America's 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,' " the president will
say.

The president will also make the argument that withdrawing from Vietnam
emboldened today's terrorists by compromising U.S. credibility, citing a
quote from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that the American people would
rise against the Iraq war the same way they rose against the war in Vietnam,
according to the excerpts.

"Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price
to American credibility, but the terrorists see things differently," Bush
will say.

On Tuesday, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "President
Bush's attempt to compare the war in Iraq to past military conflicts in East
Asia ignores the fundamental difference between the two. Our nation was
misled by the Bush Administration in an effort to gain support for the
invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, leading to one of the worst foreign
policy blunders in our history.

"While the President continues to stay-the-course with his failed strategy
in Iraq, paid for by the taxpayers, American lives are being lost and there
is still no political solution within the Iraqi government. It is time to
change direction in Iraq, and Congress will again work to do so in the
fall."

The White House is billing the speech, along with another address next week
to the American Legion, as an effort to "provide broader context" for the
debate over the upcoming Iraq progress report by Gen. David Petraeus, the
top U.S. military commander, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in
Baghdad.

President Bush has frequently asked lawmakers -- and the American people --
to withhold judgment on his troop "surge" in Iraq until the report comes out
in September.

It is being closely watched on Capitol Hill, particularly by Republicans
nervous about the political fallout from an increasingly unpopular war.

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would wait for
the report before deciding when a drawdown of the 160,000 U.S. troops in
Iraq might begin.

Bush's speeches Wednesday and next week are the latest in a series of
attempts by the White House to try to reframe the debate over Iraq, as
public support for the war continues to sag.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that almost two-thirds
of Americans -- 64 percent -- now oppose the Iraq war, and 72 percent say
that even if Petraeus reports progress, it won't change their opinion.

The poll also found a great deal of skepticism about the report; 53 percent
said they do not trust Petraeus to give an accurate assessment of the
situation in Iraq.

In addition to his analogy to Vietnam, Bush in Wednesday's speech will
invoke other historical comparisons from Asia, including the U.S. defeat and
occupation of Japan after World War II and the Korean War in the 1950s,
according to the excerpts.

"In the aftermath of Japan's surrender, many thought it naive to help the
Japanese transform themselves into a democracy. Then, as now, the critics
argued that some people were simply not fit for freedom," Bush will say.
"Today, in defiance of the critics, Japan ... stands as one of the world's
great free societies."

Speaking about the Korean War, Bush will note that at the time "critics
argued that the war was futile, that we never should have sent our troops
in, or that America's intervention was divisive here at home."

"While it is true that the Korean War had its share of challenges, America
never broke its word," Bush will say. "Without America's intervention during
the war, and our willingness to stick with the South Koreans after the war,
millions of South Koreans would now be living under a brutal and repressive
regime."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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"In America, anybody can become president.  
That's one of the risks you take . . ."

- Adlai Stevenson

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