Posted on 12/04/2005 12:13:09 AM PST by Hadean
On June 8, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon announced the withdrawal of 25,000 American troops from Vietnam. Within the next few months, he would declare that tens of thousands more were coming home. "He was reluctant to withdraw," says John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University and the author of several books on war and public opinion, "but he kept being pushed by politics."
Nixon recognized that, without U.S. military support, the government of South Vietnam would fall to the communist insurgency, and he believed that such a fall would represent a humiliating and costly defeat for the United States. "But Nixon realized that his approval ratings would slip fast unless he made progress in bringing the boys home," writes Stanley Karnow in "Vietnam: A History." American officials searching for a "breaking point" in Vietnam had found one, but what had broken was not the insurgency. It was U.S. public opinion: Americans no longer believed the war was worth it.
President Bush may not know it yet -- or, then again, he may -- but in Iraq he is about to do a Nixon. Psychologically and politically, the withdrawal phase has already begun. Militarily, the pullback will start within weeks, or at most months, of the Dec. 15 Iraqi parliamentary elections.
How can I be sure? I'm not, and I have no inside information. But the evolving structure of public opinion about Iraq is making the current war effort there unsustainable.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You're right.
No matter how the spinners spin it, this is far more like WWII.
I agree again. The problem is we're not fighting it like it's WWII.
Iraq is not Vietnam, no matter how much the Left and the MSM wants to make it so. The people we are fighting in Iraq are the very same folks who hit the WTC twice, our embassies in east Africa (the casualty figure in Nairobi was over 5,000 killed or wounded), and the USS Cole. They also formally declared war against us in 1996. More people were killed on 9/11 than at Pearl Harbor. If you want an analogy, then that is it, not Vietnam.
It can't be said enough. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan are part of the WOT. Paraphrasing Joe Louis, "We can run, but we can't hide." Leaving Iraq without winning is not an option.
Precisely. The Democrats and their willing allies in the press are declaring "Defeat" and no amount of winning will change their minds.
Iraq could emerge as a shining example of economic and personal liberties...and the Democrats would claim it represents "another defeat for America".
Raush is a RAT shill who picks and chooses his recollection of history. During Vietnam the congress, in its frequently questionable "wisdom", cut funding. There was little else Nixon could do.
Rasch, you bleepin' fool-tool. I could write a much more factual account than you ever will.
If they mean Bush will finish what Saddam started, they're right.
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