Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President. Sorry you didn't go in 1972

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

http://www.ajc.com/print/content/epaper/editions/thursday/
opinion_f3967405850240700095.html

Mistakes of Vietnam repeated with Iraq
Max Cleland - For the Journal-Constitution
Thursday, September 18, 2003

The president of the United States decides to go to war against a
nation led by a brutal dictator supported by one-party rule. That
dictator has made war on his neighbors. The president decides this is a threat to the United States.
In his campaign for president he gives no indication of wanting to go
to war. In fact, he decries the overextension of American military
might and says other nations must do more. However, unbeknownst to the American public, the president's own Pentagon advisers have already cooked up a plan to go to war. All they are looking for is an excuse.

Based on faulty intelligence, cherry-picked information is fed to
Congress and the American people. The president goes on national
television to make the case for war, using as part of the rationale an incident that never happened. Congress buys the bait --- hook, line and sinker --- and passes a resolution giving the president the authority to use "all necessary means" to prosecute the war.

....skippped large section.......

....skip............

There is no plan B. There is no exit strategy. Military morale
declines. The president's popularity sinks and the American people are increasingly frustrated by the cost of blood and treasure poured into a never-ending war.

Sound familiar? It does to me.

The president was Lyndon Johnson. The cocky, self-assured secretary of defense was Robert McNamara. The congressional resolution was the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The war was the war that I, U.S. Sens. John Kerry, Chuck Hagel and John McCain and 3 1/2 million other Americans of our generation were caught up in. It was the scene of America's longest war. It was also the locale of the most frustrating outcome of any war this nation has ever fought.
Unfortunately, the people who drove the engine to get into the war in
Iraq never served in Vietnam. Not the president. Not the vice
president. Not the secretary of defense. Not the deputy secretary of
defense. Too bad. They could have learned some lessons:

....lengthy list..........more........

.............

The president has declared "major combat over" and sent a message to
every terrorist, "Bring them on." As a result, he has lost more people in his war than his father did in his and there is no end in sight. Military commanders are left with extended tours of duty for servicemen and women who were told long ago they were going home. We are keeping American forces on the ground, where they have become sitting ducks in a shooting gallery for every terrorist in the Middle East.

Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President. Sorry you didn't go when you had the chance.

[caledesi]

1. Read this article yesterday. Fantastic. *MUST READ*