Vietnamese advice to U.S.: Leave Iraq

[PfcHammer]

http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2004/04/25/nation.20040425-sbt-MICH-A3-Vietnamese.sto

Vietnamese advice to U.S.: Leave Iraq
Former foe warns of quagmire

NATION/WORLD

By BEN STOCKING
Knight Ridder Newspapers

HANOI, Vietnam -- The Vietnamese people have some friendly advice for the United States: Don't make the same mistake twice. Get out of Iraq before it's too late.

As a divided America debates whether the U.S.-led Iraq war is "Bush's Vietnam," opinion in Vietnam is united: What the Vietnamese call the "American War" was a misguided adventure, and so is the war in Iraq.

<snip>

"It seems like the United States is going to be stuck in Iraq, just like they got stuck in Vietnam years ago," said Col. Tran Nhung, who writes for Quan Doi Nhan Dan, Vietnam's military daily. "No country in the world will accept a foreign invasion -- this is a fundamental truth."

<chop>

[Sandpiper]

1. It stands to reason

That Bush would repeat the mistakes of Vietnam. He never learned anything from them because he was a non participant in the Vietnam war.

[Joanne98]

2. On either side pro or con

Baby Bush was totally uninterested. Incurious even when he was young. Kerry participant ed on both sides of the conflict. War hero and war protester. Are can an uninterested slug be more qualified than an overly interested participant?

[denverbill]

5. Well, he does read a lot of revisionist history.

According to most freeper types, the reason we lost the Vietnam war wasn't because we were fighting against the people of Vietnam who really didn't want us there, it's because we didn't kill enough Vietnamese. If we had bombed North Vietnam into a parking lot, we would've 'won'.

That's the scary thing about these assholes. They really truly believe that we only 'lost' the Vietnam war because we played too nice. They are correct, but only if you think that millions and millions of Vietnamese people would rather be dead than live in a Communist state.

[0007]

6. Vietnam was not about Communism it was about tungsten

...General De Gaulle of France warned President Eisenhower about going into Vietnam for a cheap resource. Eisenhower listened. It was Kennedy who first sent a few troops in to protect the mining companies.

[Just Me]

11. Iraq isn't about "liberation", it's about oil.

Why should the people of Iraq or for that matter the whole of the Middle East give that away to foreign occupiers?

It ain't gonna happen. The Vietnamese are right. The Bush Regime is wrong.

[0007]

13. You are so right, have 'ya ever noticed that when it's communism

it is North vs. South, East vs. West - now that it is Terrorism it is only the Middle East. All Arabic. The theme is the same, "Good against evil."

And we have a duty to democratize the pagan heathens. And what is indeed scarier is that we may use nuclear power to try and win our point.

[drumwolf]

3. another parallel between Iraq and Vietnam

Many Iraqi exiles in America and the rest of the West were bitterly anti-Saddam and fully supported the "liberation" (which is exactly how they saw it) of Iraq.

Likewise, many Vietnamese in America were and still are very staunchly anti-Communist and loathe their native country's government. And they tend to be very "patriotic" Americans, which means many of them are quite hawkish. Quite a number of Vietnamese-Americans supported our invasion of Iraq.

[Sandpiper]

4. Meanwhile, the folks on the ground in Iraq

Who didn't have the resources to flee to safer waters, can't stand the johnny come lately "exiles" who were high and dry when times were tough, but now think they should run the show.

[dawn]

7. True...there's tons of them in Westminster, in Orange County,

They refuse to let Communists from Vietnam visit the area, and, yes, are very hawkish and pro-war.

[dand]

8. Who would know better than the Vietnamese,

They are in all probability "advising" the Iraqis to sit back and wait for American public opinion to kick *'s ass.

[NYC]

12. It's Iraqi public opinion that matters,

not American public opinion.

[physioex]

9. That's common sense.........

What good is their advice and who is going to listen??

[daleo]

10. Darn those Vietnamese

Always pushing the U.S. military around. They think they are so big.

[TahitiNut]

14. "Never get involved in a land war in Asia." (Ho Chi Vezzini)

:shrug: (Prepare to die.)