Vietnam historians give Bush reason to stay in Iraq

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Times Online

Sarah Baxter, Washington

WHEN President George W Bush invoked the memory of Vietnam to justify staying in Iraq, he was drawing on a new wave of revisionist history which maintains that America did not lose the war, but the will to win.

“Three decades later there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam war and how we left,” Bush said in a speech to army veterans last week. White House insiders admitted it was a risky topic which had previously been left to the antiwar movement. Americans generally prefer to forget Indochina and remember who won the cold war.

Yet as the prospect of victory in Iraq has receded, the lessons of Vietnam have provoked intense discussion among historians and in current affairs magazines such as the neo-conservative Weekly Standard.

Bush has been quietly paying attention and had been thinking for months about the right moment to bring Vietnam into the debate, according to a White House official.


Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2327806.ece

[MethuenProgressive]

1. MSNBC interviewed the Bush-quoted author. He disagrees.

[Demeter]

2. There Are Historians,,,,and Historians

Just as there are law school grads, and Monica Goodling and her fellow alumnae.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. most historians are just ideological hacks of one sort of another,

[Gregorian]

3. I think I know what hell is.

It's a place where people like Bush get to reenact the decisions they made, but from the alternate perspective.

Vietnam was a waste of resources and lives. In fact, it still is. The war isn't over for those people. From agent orange to land mines. And so is Iraq. Try and spin it. Try as hard as you can. It's history that will never change. And repeating it still won't change it.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. As Jon Stewart said,

"Oh, fuck, now we're going into Vietnam."

MKJ


edited, because I misspelled his name. !

Damn, a beautiful August night can intoxicate one, along with a glass of wine. :-)

[Hissyspit]

5. Bullshit.

Piled on top of the horrendous hypocrisy of the president bringing up Vietnam comparisons after those who did so over the past five years were vilified.

We have a disgusting president and a disgusting media.

"Bush has been quietly paying attention and had been thinking for months about the right moment to bring Vietnam into the debate, according to a White House official."

How about before you started the war, motherfucker?

[0007]

7. History is only the view of the person that writes the past. Such

as there are many views on the U.S. dropping the Atom bombs on Japan.

Historians are much like opinions and opinions are much like assholes, everyone has one.

[Mojorabbit]

8. The historian he quoted was livid

and on Countdown the other night saying so loud and clear re being taken out of context.

[Adsos Letter]

9. yeah...and if it weren't for historians....

...you wouldn't have a freakin clue as to anything beyond the memory of those now alive...

[0007]

10. The proof is aways in the pudding, isn't it?

A historian who would convey the truth must lie. Often he must enlarge the truth by diameters, otherwise his reader would not be able to see it.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

[Adsos Letter]

11. Well of course...

...if Mark Twain said it it must be true...