Max Cleland: Mistakes of Vietnam repeated with Iraq

[ramblin_dave]

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.

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[huckleberry]

1. This is a must-read! Thanks for posting!

Max Cleland nails it!

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

[candy331]

2. Well spoken

from first hand knowlege. Too bad ones refuse to take lessons from history but try to rewrite it. How true that "if one does not learn from past mistakes they are bound to repeat them". I sure hope that it does not take years like Vietnam to recognize that this was a mistake and needed corrections are made as quick as posible. My husband did 2 12month tours in Vietnam 68-69 and 70-71 and knows the horrors of that war firsthand.

[Paschall]

3. Very nice

Interesting coincidence: I just posted a similar blast from the past. You might want to check out the thread.

[IndianaGreen]

4. An excellent article by a man that was there!

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

As noted Afghan expert and author Lester Grau wrote about the Soviet experience in the Afghan war:

A guerrilla war is not a war of technology versus peasantry. Rather, it is a contest of endurance and national will. The side with the greatest moral commitment (ideological, religious or patriotic) will hold the ground at the end of the conflict. Battlefield victory can be almost irrelevant, since victory is often determined by morale, obstinacy and survival.

The Soviet War in Afghanistan: History and Harbinger of Future War?
by
General (Ret) Mohammad Yahya Nawroz, Army of Afghanistan
& LTC (Ret) Lester W. Grau, U.S. Army

http://www.bdg.minsk.by/cegi/N2/Afg/Waraf.htm

[kwolf68]

5. Go Max

A case can be made that our Democracy is a complete sham when a true patriot, a great man like Max Cleland is voted out for an ideological hypocrite.

I hope Mr. Cleland surfaces again in politics. His country desperately needs him still.

[Dudley_DUright]

6. Max is the man

He just became a trustee of the university I teach at, and I can't think of anyone I would trust more to serve on our board, but I would give him up in a minute to see him get back into politics where he belongs. I think any of our presidential candidates would be wise to seriously consider him as a VP prospect.