A history lesson for the President: Was George Bush right about Vietnam?

[cal04]

This week, President Bush cited America's experience in Vietnam as an argument against withdrawing from Iraq. Unfortunately, argues Rupert Cornwell, he had got quite the wrong end of the historical stick

(snip)
In Kansas City on Wednesday, Mr Bush used three arguments - two negative and one positive - to draw his version of the parallels between Iraq and Vietnam. A hasty American pullout, he maintained, would bring unspeakable horrors for innocent civilians in Iraq and neighbouring countries, just as American withdrawal had led to suffering and slaughter in Indochina three decades ago.

(snip)
Inspect them closely, however, and each of the arguments has less substance than its predecessor. Mr Bush was on his firmest ground when he pointed to the terrible events that followed America's departure from Vietnam. Then, as now, he said, some insisted that the real problem was the US presence, "and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end". Instead unknown tens or hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were executed, imprisoned or otherwise "re-educated" in camps, and more than a million others became refugees. But these upheavals paled beside the genocide unleashed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, that killed some 1.7 million people, a fifth of the population.

(snip)
In fact, however, these disasters were not precipitated by a rapid withdrawal of the sort opponents of the Iraq war seek. The departure of US forces from Vietnam was a long, gradual process that began in 1968 and continued for six years. As for the rise of Pol Pot, historians agree that without the war in Vietnam and the "collateral damage" visited upon Cambodia by US bombers and the machinations of the CIA, this almost certainly would never have happened.

And Mr Bush overlooked another point. His troop "surge" may be producing some results, but the political settlement that alone can produce genuine stability looks more remote than ever. In its absence, Iraq's own killing fields of innocent civilians multiply.


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2891176.ece

[Demeter]

1. Boy George Can't Handle Reality From Any Time Period

He should stick to fictional works, like the Bible.

[baldguy]

2. The Vietnam War was the end product of 30+ years of consistant US foreign policy

Over 4 very different Presidential administrations. The reasons for it were widely understood & agreed upon by the diplomatic, military and intelligence communities.

Iraq was the end product of the efforts a small, secretive cabal who has gained, held and expanded their power illegally, have radically changed US policies in foreign relations, economic agreements, and military deployment and whose reasons given for these changes have been disingenuous at best.