Did He Really Just Say That?

[Leo 9]

Christopher Allbritton
Beirut, Lebanon
Aug 23 2007

Did He Really Just Say That?

This week, President George W. Bush stood up before the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and unspooled a whole lot of odd analogies to make the case that we need to stay in Iraq for... well, forever, I guess. I've not been in Iraq for more than a year but it's still a central focus of my reporting here in the Middle East. So, this week, let's step away from Lebanon -- which is depressing anyway -- and focus on Bush and his fantasies about Mesopotamia.

Because some days he makes it just too easy.

Bush's VFW speech has received a lot of ink. Everyone's been reporting on it, but what's bizarre is that Bush was pointing to past wars in Asia -- World War II against Japan, Korea and, most enigmatically, Vietnam -- as lessons to learn from. For this White House, Imperial Japan was the al Qaeda of its day. The Korean War was a war to instill democracy on the Korean peninsula. And Vietnam was muffed up by Defeatocrats at home - pulling the plug lead to the deaths of millions.

"One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps,' and 'killing fields,'" the president said.

Really, it's hard to know where to start.

snip

http://www.spot-on.com/archives/allbritton/2007/08/did_he_really_just_say_that_1.html

[zbdent]

1. I put a letter in the local paper a while back pointing out the fact

that future generations will still be cleaning up the mess of Bush's folly and the Republicans' fascism (worded differently).

A few weeks later, a message was left on my answering machine from someone of a "differing opinion" who was upset with my statements in my letter, and wanted to have a "face to face discussion" (read: kick the shit out of my unpatriotic, anti-American ass ...)

[BR_Parkway]

2. I'm sure you'll be happy to meet him, as soon as he gets back from his tour in Iraq

after all, why wouldn't he be over there "serving his country" like the troops he claims to support.

</sarcasm>

Bet they didn't have the balls to leave a name or number either.

[zbdent]

4. Nope ...

[Demeter]

3. K&R For a Smashing Analysis Of Bush Dunderheadedness

That man can think of more ways to be wrong than grains of sand on Lake Michigan beaches...

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Leo 9]

6. Twas Vietnam that removed the Khmer Rough from power.

As I said in this other thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2963146


After four years of the brutal rule, the Khmer Rouge regime was removed from power in 1979 as a result of an invasion by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge


Here's another inconvenient truth for you.

USA backed the Khmer Rough...

Dubya;
"In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation and torture and execution."

From 1990 :

For the last eleven years the United States government, in a covert operation born of cynicism and hypocrisy, has collaborated with the genocidal Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. More specifically, Washington has covertly aided and abetted the Pol Potists' guerrilla war to overthrow the Vietnamese backed government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, which replaced the Khmer Rouge regime.
The U.S. government's secret partnership with the Khmer Rouge grew out of the U.S. defeat in the Vietnam War. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the U.S.-worried by the shift in the Southeast Asian balance of power-turned once again to geopolitical confrontation. It quickly formalized an anti-Vietnamese, anti-Soviet strategic alliance with China-an alliance whose disastrous effects have been most evident in Cambodia. For the U.S., playing the "China card" has meant sustaining the Khmer Rouge as a geopolitical counterweight capable of destabilizing the Hun Sen government in Cambodia and its Vietnamese allies.


http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/US_PolPot.html

[Leo 9]

7. Also; Taking by force the property of one man to give to another is...

...what every government that's ever been has done.

Don't pay your bill to some business, it will use force too.

See ya!

[Enthusiast]

8. Great article!

"Don't his speechwriters check this stuff? Or do they just rely on the historical ignorance of many Americans?"

The historical ignorance of Bush's base seems to work every time. It has been very effective in getting him what he wants. It might even allow him to strike Iran.

[truedelphi]

10. For the 25% of those who still believe in him

Well, his speeches are written by Jesus Christ our Lord himself.

No need to know history. God tells George what to say, and the right wing ministers tell their congregations to support the Lord and his proxy George W.

Those who don't fall in this category but still support him are the four out of every ten thousand Americans who are making big bucks on the war continuing.

[Divine Discontent]

9. enjoy your short stay, don't you have a right wing board to visit instead? n/t

[Mechatanketra]

11. Sigh. Disgusting.

If America had an opposition party, its public officials would seize every opportunity available to reconnect this "We would have won Vietnam if the liberals hadn't stabbed us in the back" howling with its proper, original label:

Dolchstasse.

"We would have won the Great War against France and England, if only the leftists hadn't stabbed us in the back ..."