"Fiasco" by Thomas Ricks

[HassleCat]

I like this book because I like to dislike George W. Bush. Thomas Ricks asks some important questions. How did we forget the lessons of Vietnam? How did we stumble into the Iraq quagmire? Who dropped the ball? Who should we blame? How did we win a quick military victory, then turn success into failure? Ricks interviews mostly military people, and comes up with some interesting examples. He names names, and he places blame squarely on the people he feels deserve blame. This is a detailed historical account, so it's not an easy read, but it's interesting if you want to know what happened and how it happened. Wolfowitz and the chickenhawk crowd get raked over the coals pretty thoroughly, and GW Bush is portrayed as a bumbling incompetent who allowed the PNAC crowd to lead him around by the nose.

[TexasProgresive]

1. We watched "Dick Cavett's Vietnam" Monday on PBS

It was déjà vu all over again. Hearing the same arguments for and against with pretty much the same post mortem. Too bad we didn't get the "Iraq papers"

If you aren't old enough to remember Dick Cavett, he is an America treasure.

http://www.pbs.org/dick-cavett/vietnam/
Dick Cavett's Vietnam
While I started out to do an entertaining talk show, you couldn’t keep Vietnam out of the conversation,” says Dick Cavett in a new interview in the documentary. Joining Cavett are a mix of actor/entertainers (Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Groucho Marx and Paul Newman), politicians (Senators Barry Goldwater, Wayne Morse, Edmund Muskie, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey), sports figures (Muhammad Ali) and more.

Dick Cavett’s Vietnam includes numerous highlights from the talk show representing all sides of the unfolding debate about the war. A young Warren Beatty gives a passionate explanation for how America got into the war and his evolving feelings about the country’s involvement in Vietnam, highlighting the changing opinion of the American public toward the war. Cavett also had veterans, including future Senator John Kerry, on his program to debate the morality of fighting in Vietnam as well as discuss the treatment they received upon their return stateside. Today, these episodes of The Dick Cavett Show provide a unique window into what was happening all across the country--in private homes, on college campuses and in the halls of government.

Dick Cavett’s Vietnam combines interviews from Cavett shows with archival footage, network news broadcasts and recently filmed interviews with Dick Cavett, General Wesley K. Clark of the United States Army (retired); Pulitzer Prize-winning author Fredrik Logevall (Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam); and Naftali (who was also featured in Dick Cavett’s Watergate) to provide insight and perspective on this controversial chapter of American history.

[KoKo]

5. ...!

[Doctor_J]

2. The questions posed in your OP are preposterous

How did we forget the lessons of Vietnam?

We didn't. The Bush family is good at turning blood and carnage into gold.

Who dropped the ball?

No one. The plan was executed perfectly.

Who should we blame?

The entire Bush Crime Family

How did we win a quick military victory, then turn success into failure?

Depends on your definitions of success and failure. I saw no military success.

GW Bush is portrayed as a bumbling incompetent who allowed the PNAC crowd to lead him around by the nose.

I would wager his involvement was nearly zero. They didn't "lead him around". He was completely ignored.

Book sounds like a great read, I agree with your first sentence.

Rec

[Skittles]

3. Obama told us to look forward, and repukes focused on Benghazi

THAT'S what happened

[blkmusclmachine]

4. GWB not dumb, just evil.