Gohmert tells CPAC: We could’ve won Vietnam

[DonViejo]

"People in Washington" decided the U.S. couldn't win the war, Gohmert said

BY JILLIAN RAYFIELD

In a speech that spanned several decades of U.S. foreign policy, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, tied together the Vietnam War, the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and mostly blamed it all on Jimmy Carter.

Gohmert was speaking on a panel called “Too Many American Wars? Should We Fight Anywhere and Can We Afford It?”, and began by stating that “Vietnam was winnable, but people in Washington decided we should not win it.” He added that the “lesson” of Vietnam is that “you don’t send American men and women into harm’s way unless you’re gonna give them what they need” to win.

Gohmert blamed Jimmy Carter for many of America’s current foreign policy problems, referring to the Iranian hostage crisis, and pointing to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: “I still believe today that we have Americans dying for their country because we did not send a message in 1979 that you do not attack Atcmerican soil.”

The rest of the members of the panel agreed, including Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who pointed to America’s “tendancy to end wars indecisively,” and “America’s political leadership being too sophisticated and focusing on things like exit strategies, as opposed to victory strategies.” Dr. Ivan Eland, a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, noted that “we’ve shown the people how to beat us.”

-30-

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/gohmert_we_couldve_won_vietnam/

[hlthe2b]

1. So appropriately named... Everytime I see Gohmert, I think....

GOMER (which in medical parlance refers to the acronym "get outta my ER"....

Honestly, how many very stupid individuals must live/vote in his district.

[Angry Dragon]

2. IKE and the CIA were responsible for the 1979 hostage situation

[lastlib]

3. **DINGDINGDING ** WINNER!

spot on! Their overthrow of a democratic regime and installation of the Shah set the table for the hostage-takers. Khomeini just happened to be there to take advantage of it.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Won what? Another country to feed and insure?

[Moostache]

5. Thats the result of a black-and-white only mind.

That worthless piece of shit and all-around mental midget should be eking out an existence somewhere near the boundaries of starvation and dehydration instead of living the high life and serving as a member of Congress before he "retires" to a cushy lobbying job.

His district must be as sad as the ones that insist on sending Michelle Bachman and Steve King back to Congress year after year. I consider the three of them to be the REAL axis of evil!

[Raven]

6. How many of these assholes served? n/t

[kairos12]

7. Yeah, led by Shrub, Cheney, oh wait, chickenhawks all

[John2]

8. An argument can also be made

that America's Cold War opponent is avoiding Wars, while we continue to force our ideology on other countries. Communist China hasn't gotten in any conflicts either with their neutrality policy on armed conflict. I think after Afghanistan, the Russians learned their lesson. The Vietnamese are deciding their own disputes. One side just happened to be the winner even if it was by force. The same thing happened in this country without foreign inteference.

The United States better beware because the Chinese are overtaking us and using our arrogance of intolerance against us in areas like science. And after reading about what they are up to, they have a very active space program going on while we go around the World trying to nation build. Ignorant people like Gohmert and his Party are intefering with our progress. Maybe the Chinese is more interested in Science than starting Wars. I think they outnumber the U.S. now in science graduates. We need to use our resources to educate our people. That is what we need to invest in.

[baldguy]

9. There's a wall with 58,000 names listed on it which is walking distance from your office, Gomer.

They might disagree with you.

[yellowcanine]

10. "WE?" "What do you mean "WE", Kemosabe?"

Kemosabe meaning Chicken Hawk, in this case.

[struggle4progress]

11. The war ended about 40 years ago now. We had a long national discussion about Vietnam

from the mid-60s until the early 70s. Nixon won in 68 based in part on his promise to end the war, which a great majority of Americans had come to oppose -- but, of course, he didn't end it: he escalated it by bombing Cambodia, outraging much of the public

After the war finally ended, the rightwing spent years promoting bizarre "stabbed in the back theories" apparently pilfered wholesale from propaganda that circulated in Weimar era Germany. The notion that America suffered from some mysterious "Vietnam syndrome" appeared again and again in rightwing discussions of Reagan's invasion of Grenada, Bush I's invasions of Panama and Iraq, and Bush II's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

But the real lesson of Vietnam has nothing to do with shadowy fifth columns stabbing America in the back or an imaginary fear of America to go to war: it has to do with control of our national policy debates by brazen ideologues; it has to do with militaristic jingoism and the eternal lie that war is easy and somehow ennobling; it has to do with the willingness of policy makers to mislead the American public; and it has to do with a pervasive lack of empathy, that allows us to believe that it is wonderful for us to unleash our awesome military technology upon persons far away

The Vietnam war is over. Gohmert still wants to capitalize upon it, because the rightwing has tried to do so for years, and because he is a man of little imagination who has few original ideas

[JHB]

12. If we'd done as he says and "won" the Vietnam War...

...how many CPACers would be dead from the ensuing WW3?

[PlanetBev]

13. You could've won the Civil War, too

But thank God you didn't, Douchebag.

[HeiressofBickworth]

14. If I recall correctly

"winning Vietnam" and "giving them what they need" were code words for using tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam. Both before the war ended and certainly for a time afterwards, the war hawks bemoaned the lack of will to go nuclear. Thank heavens cooler heads prevailed and although napalm and defoliants were ecological disasters, nuclear carried with it international political risks that would have been even bigger disasters.

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. I wonder how this squares with the Rand Paul faction? For that matter does Rand Paul have the same

foreign policy world view as his father? Will there be a conflict between those who embrace a libertarian type neo-isolationism versus the Neocons and the apocalyptic rightwing fundamentalist? I actually have the impression that when it comes to most of the Tea Party sort - they don't see a big contradiction because they just don't think about.