Posted on 01/16/2005 2:20:28 PM PST by Tarpaulin
WASHINGTON (AFP) - America's ongoing military entanglement in Iraq (news - web sites) has become President George Bush (news - web sites)'s Vietnam, US Senator Edward Kennedy, a leading member of the opposition Democratic party, said.
The harsh words refer to the US role and ultimate defeat in the 1964-1975 Vietnam war.
Iraq is "clearly is George Bush's Vietnam," said Kennedy, speaking on CBS's "Face The Nation" program.
Kennedy then blasted Bush's claim in an interview in Sunday's Washington Post that his Iraq policy was endorsed by the US public because of his November 2004 re-election victory.
"I think that's ridiculous," said Kennedy. He quickly referred to the 1964 elections, when Democrat Lyndon Johnson, who had increased US military involvement in Vietnam, defeated Republican Barry Goldwater by an overwhelming majority.
Johnson then had to "basically abdicate the presidency" when he announced in March 1968 that he would not seek re-election, largely due to the drain on time, resources and his popularity resulting from failures in Vietnam.
According to Kennedy, Iraq "is a disaster because it's the a result of blunder after blunder after blunder. And it is George Bush's Vietnam," he insisted.
It has "absolutely been a mistake that we went into Iraq, instead of following (September 11 mastermind) Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)," said Kennedy.
Further mistakes included not having enough troops for post-war operations, disbanding the Iraqi army, having single source contracts to groups like the politically connected Halliburton, the prisoner abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib, and the US refusal to accept offers by other countries such as Egypt to assist in training Iraqi forces, said Kennedy .
"Finally they have been unable to make up a plan -- they're making it up day by day. Until Iraqis are going to fight for their own country we are going to have a very, very dangerous situation," said Kennedy.
As for the upcoming elections in Iraq, "We have to let the Iraqis make the judgment and the decision about the elections. The United States has been manipulating and making all the calls in terms of Iraq. The Iraqis have to make the judgments," he said.
Kennedy also believes neighboring countries should be enlisted to encourage Sunni Iraqis to participate in the electoral process.
"Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves this very basic question. And that is, is the face of the United States part of the liberation and security and the stability in that country, or are we a force that is perceived to be expanding the kind of uncertainty and savagery and revolution that's taking place there?" he asked.
I don't question that Iraq is George Bush's Viet Nam. That doesn't bother me at all. What bothers me is that Ted Kennedy and others are out there trying to f**k it up. They take no greater joy than American failure. They are America's failures.
Yes, but it's worth studying. Remember the words of
Santayana, "Those who don't remember the past are condemned
to relive it."
It's time to turn the page.
This is exactly right. I think that John Kerry's defeat plus a success in Iraq will officially mark the close of the Vietnam era. It will bury the controlling meme of that era, which is that the American military is incapable of rendering good outcomes in the world. It'll be the one-two punch that decisively draws the curtain on that part of our history. America will have moved on.
You forget, in 1964 Vietnam was an election issue. The conflict, having been joined by JFK, Goldwater felt it preferable to win. The daisy plucking children incinerated by the Chinese?, Russian? retaliation to his ambition was surely the most devastating commercial ever used in a presidential race.
Right!!!
This doofus, Fat Teddie the swimmer, is only surpassed by Bobble Head Schieffer and SeeBS in the mental midget category.
Middle photo caption: "Ah, I have Gunga Din by my side. My man-servant. But, we affectionately call him "Groomer of the elephant man."
Yeah, by all means Senator Swimmer, let's obsess over capturing a man living in a cave or a mud hut somewhere in the tribal territories of Pakistan, and no longer controlling anything, because he's the (now purely) symbolic figurehead of Islamic terrorism.
It's a "blunder" that Dubya has allowed us to be distracted with attacking terrorism where its new sanctuaries and centers threaten to arise and cohere. It's a "blunder" to strike strategically at the real root causes of terrorism -- despotism and dysfunctional cultural stasis -- by pursuing democratic and capitalistic transformation in the Middle East.
As Democrats uniquely understand, it's symbolic victories that we should pursue. Real victories are too hard (and divisive) to achieve. To even make the attempt is a "blunder".
Whenever any of you wonder how our immigration policy has become the mess it is, and how multi-cultutralism was used as a fifth-column to undermine our culture and society, think back to the so-called Immigration reform Act of 1965 and its chief sponsor.
If he indeed isn't, Ted Kennedy should qualify as an evil spawn of Saul Alinsky.
So the leftists in government, the liberal media, and potheads on campus are going to try and make us lose in Iraq too.
Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam: US Senator Kennedy
Yeah, but at least we know HE'LL never have his own "Bay of Pigs", you rat bastard!
Chappaquiddick was Teddy Kennedy's Waterloo.
Actually, Chappaquiddick is teddy's "Bay of Pigs": his big brother left many lives behind; he only left one.
The Vietnam war was the longest in our nation's history.
1st American advisor was killed on June 08, 1956,
and the last casualties in connection with the war occurred on May 15, 1975, during the Mayaquez incident. Approximately 2.7 million Americans served in the war zone; 300,000 were wounded and approximately 75,000 permanently disabled. Officially there are still 1,991 Americans unaccounted for from SE Asia.
Vietnam was a savage, in your face war where death could and did strike from anywhere with absolutely no warning. The brave young men and women who fought that war paid an awful price of blood, pain and suffering. As it is said: "ALL GAVE SOME ... SOME GAVE ALL"
The Vietnam war was not lost on the battlefield. No American force in ANY other conflict fought with more determination or sheer courage than the Vietnam Veteran. For the first time in our history America sent it's young men and women into a war run by inept politicians who had no grasp of military strategies and no moral will to win. They were led by "top brass" who were concerned mainly with furthering their own careers, most neither understood the nature of the war nor had a clue about the impossible mission with which they'd tasked their soldiers. And the war was reported by a self serving Media who penned stories filled with inaccuracies, deliberate omissions, biased presentations and blatant distorted interpretations because they were more interested in a story than the truth! It can be debated that we should never have fought that war. It can also be argued that the young Americans who fought so courageously, never losing a single major battle, helped in a huge way to WIN THE COLD WAR.
Actually, I think it's more like the War of the Roses. Or maybe the Punic Wars? Why not?
that is about the funniest thing i have ever seen online
He has now said this repeatedly. Why is it news everytime he makes this phony analogy? This is getting to sound like a broken record.
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