Comparing Vietnam to Iraq makes no sense

Yesterday, our President invoked comparisons of the outcome of the Vietnam War to our government’s hotly debated potential pull out of Iraq. While, I understand why he did this and the emphatic danger he was trying to convince us of, this was a bad call anyway you slice it.

Vietnam is seen as the largest American tragedy in the last century. The overwhelming view by Americans some-30 years later is that we should never have gotten ourselves tangled into this conflict in the first place.  The war emits an image of year after year of thousands of wasted American GI lives. It also represents a time when internal strife was at its highest within our Country creating tension with the Nixon administration that has not been matched since. The image of an uncaring and out of touch REPUBLICAN administration during those times sticks out firmly in my mind.

President Bush is desperately trying to put pressure on those Congressional districts with key votes. Unfortunately, by playing the “look what we did to the people of Vietnam” card, he only served to undermine and further lose credibility for his Iraq strategy (as if there’s really any more to be lost at this point).

I believe that most Americans (Republican or Democrat) hear or read his comments and immediately conjure up the exact opposite response that our President wanted. We can’t believe that anyone would try to exploit the Vietnam debacle in this way because this war should have never happened in the first place (sound familiar?). Next, we wonder (most respectfully) what this man (or his advisors) could possibly be thinking to actually implement this communications strategy. And, that creates great cause for even more concern and doubt that the President and his administration simply don’t have a clue.

Comments

[PrefersQuiznos]

This would be funny if it weren't so tragic:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, April [2004] is turning into the deadliest month in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad, and some people are comparing Iraq to Vietnam and talking about a quagmire. Polls show that support for your policy is declining and that fewer than half Americans now support it. What does that say to you and how do you answer the Vietnam comparison?

THE PRESIDENT: I think the analogy is false. I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy.

[Steven Zweig]

I think the administration just has to ask itself: when exactly did the Viet Nam War become something to aspire to?