[Vision2020] Iraq War is Just Another Vietnam

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (January 9, 2007) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with thanks to Bill
London -

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Iraq war is just another Vietnam 

I'm old enough to remember America's other unwinnable war: Vietnam. 

I remember the troop "surges" that escalated that war, the Vietnamization,
the light at the end of the tunnel - all of the hopeful phrases that proved
so tragically hopeless. 

I remember the claims of all the catastrophic consequences if we lost. The
dominoes would fall. The Communists would take Indonesia, then Australia,
then Hawaii. 

I remember how Americans were fooled by the lies and fantasies for so many
years. 

But I also remember how we resisted that war, how the guilt and tragedy
ravaged the Army and its soldiers, and how the war finally ground to a halt.
And then the Vietnamese civil war ended. And the dominoes did not fall. 

Last year, President Bush saluted the friendship between our two countries
while standing in front of a statue of Ho Chi Mihn in the independent and
united nation of Vietnam. 

Bill London, Moscow

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I agree with you 100%, Bill.

However, there is one clear distinct difference between the current Iraq
Civil War and Vietnam.  When President Johnson realized that he had been
lied to by General Westmoreland, ultimately passing those lies on to the
American people, President Johnson stepped down and refused to run for
reelection in 1968.

Johnson stepped down as a matter of trust and integrity.  Bush simply
replaces those generals who disagree with him.

To quote Country Joe McDonald . . .

"Well, it's one, two, three . . .
What are we fighting for?"

Thanks,

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


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"Seldom, if ever, has a war ended leaving the victors with such a sense of
uncertainty and fear -- with such a realization that the future is obscure
and that survival is not assured."

- Edward R. Murrow

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