You probably are not old enough to remember, but Nixon still hadn't cleaned it up in his 6th year in office. He governed as the most Big Government, liberal president I can remember (wage & price controls, created the OSHA, EPA, SSI, DEA, Office of Minority Business Enterprise, doubling of the Federal Register annually during his 6 years, 55 mph speed limit, etc.) in an attempt to appease or work with the Democrats. He gave into the DEMs and officially ceased US combat operations in March 1973 (two years before the fall of Saigon), this meant that those of us still there couldn't defend ourselves. I see the parallels to Iraq very well. Like Vietnam the administration has not permitted an over powering, unconditional fight against the enemy because of political pressure. Americans demand that we either fight to win or not fight at all. The public support for the war in Iraq, rather how the war is being fought, was a major contributor in the debacle.
So Bush is much better than Nixon, and the party is much more conservative, and you still are unappeasable!