Posted on 11/28/2006 7:27:16 AM PST by areafiftyone
Sen. John McCain says the Vietnam War taught a generation of U.S. leaders two lessons, both of them ignored in Iraq.
* You must have the public’s support to wage war.
* Use overwhelming force while waging it.
“We seem to have forgotten them in the conduct of this conflict and it’s costing us an enormous amount – not just in Iraq but all over the world,” said the likely Republican presidential candidate in 2008. He is joined by three other veterans, including Washington fixture Jack Valenti, on a HOTSOUP.com Hot Issues panel about the Iraq-Vietnam parallels.
McCain supported the Iraq war, but has criticized the Bush administration’s planning and execution. While calling for more U.S. troops in Iraq, the former Vietnam prisoner of war has implied that he’d prefer immediate withdrawal to a politically motivated staggered pull-out. “What I cannot do is ask (a U.S. soldier) to return to Iraq, to risk life and limb, so that we might delay our defeat for a few months or a year,” McCain said in a Nov. 16 address.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Nah - these rat clowns would still oppose the war that they originally supported.
To protect our troops in Iraq, and to further the WOT, we should be putting the severest pressure on Iran and Syria. That means force or the threat of imminent force.
I will not vote for this fool.
Why must we suffer this lunatic?!
Because the choices stink and the MSM likes McCain regardless of whether we do or not so we are going to be bombarded with McCain. The only way to get rid of him is NOT VOTE FOR HIM.
"You must have the public’s support to wage war."
I had always understood that the American public was still largely supportive of the Vietnam War until the very end.
We did not forget them.
The Dems INTENTIONALLY used the lesson learned in Iraq, that a minority party/group can gain political advantage from an anti-war stance.
They did not care about the lives of our troops, or the greater national security. We will pay.
We did not forget them.
The Dems INTENTIONALLY used the lesson learned in Vietnam, that a minority party/group can gain political advantage from an anti-war stance.
They did not care about the lives of our troops, or the greater national security. We will pay.
BINGO!
Sadly, our guys are dying while our military is constrained by a bunch of spineless politicians who don't want to "offend" anyone. Oh, and many thanks to the MSM for their contribution.
It was Watergate that lost the Vietnam War. After Nixon got re-elected in 1972, he got our troops out while at the same time ARVN had gotten to the point where it could defeat the NVA (as it did during the Easter Offensive). What happened was that after the 1974 elections in which the Democrats got a veto-proof majority in the House, they then proceeded to stop funding the South Vietnamese. That was all due to Watergate.
If his first requirement is true, then we can't win a war the MSM does not support- and if they were somehow subverted, we would fall quickly to the first force against us.
Right, that is the history I understand as well.
Thus, as I said originally, McCain's analogy about "the public" not supporting the Vietnam War is bogus.
Watergate, of course was the LeftMedia's first real victory and fought the same dirty way that they are smearing the efforts in Iraq:
Pound the public relentlessly until they are sick, not of the event itself, but of hearing about it incessantly in the media.
The public did support the war when it started. Once it's started you either finish it, or "Cut and Run".
Use overwhelming force while waging it.
I believe we did, when that was appropriate. To the extent and in the situations that it still is, we still do. F-16s, such as the one that went down hitting the bad guys, aren't exactly pea shooters you know.
In the history of the US, counting instances of the use of military force, there have been more times that war was not declared than when it was.
In fact our first go round with the Muzzies was not a declared war. But we kicke their ass anyway. (Barbary Pirates, who were really more akin to Privateers operating under the protection of the local governments, such as they were, along the southern Mediterranian coast).
Right-on!
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