Originally posted by: palehorse74
It's amazing that, even after more than 30 years, so many people still don't understand anything about the mistakes made during the Vietnam War - very few of which were made by the troops themselves, or Nixon.
Which is part of why the Bushwhacko neocons were able to drag us into their travesty in Iraq, now. But the TRAITOR IN CHIEF had other, far more precise and relevant warnings about his folly in Iraq than the examples of Vietnam. In his memoirs, A World Transformed (1998), written with Brent Scowcroft, on pp. 489 - 490, George H.W. Bush predicted exactly what has happened:
Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.
Sound familiar? :Q If only his idiot son could read!
Nixon wasn't the only President with responsibility for Vietnam. LBJ lied to Congress and the American people in much the same way as the Bushwhackos did to pimp their war in Iraq. Nixon's example is relevant because, like Bush, he shredded the Constitutional rights of American citizens he considered to be his political "enemies."
However, the level to which the Bushwhackos have taken their crimes, coupled with the far greater ability to which they could do so in the the age of computers and the Internet, make them far and away the worst criminal administration in our nation's history.
IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY, NOW! :thumbsdown: :| :thumbsdown:
