VIDEO (CTV NEWS): U.S. Iraq policy draws a 'Vietnam' comparison

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CTV.ca News Staff

The news that American troops could remain in Iraq for another four years triggered a Vietnam comparison from a leading Republican U.S. senator.

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there," Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said on This Week on ABC.

"But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."

Hagel, a veteran of the Southeast Asian conflict that took the lives of 58,000 U.S. troops between 1965 and 1973, originally thought the U.S. should have sent in two to three times the number of troops when it invaded in March 2003.

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To play video clip, click on link in right column on the web page below: ("CTV News: Graham Richardson on the quagmire 2:13")

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1124625992227_7/?hub=CTVNewsAt11

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