'US can withdraw from Iraq while Army is being created'--Melvin Laird

[Gloria]

linked from Juan Cole:

http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/9E343E921AD5FD416525709A0018F28F?OpenDocument

'US can withdraw from Iraq while Army is being created'

Washington, Oct 14 (PTI) Former Secretary of Defence Melvin Laird has said the United States can withdraw from Iraq while Iraqi army is being created, as happened in case of Vietnam.

Laird noted in an article in Foreign Affairs that the United States managed to withdraw American forces while creating a viable South Vietnamese army.

The same approach, he claims, could work in Iraq today.

"I believed then and still believe today that given enough outside resources, South Vietnam was capable of defending itself, just as I believe Iraq can do the same now.

"For me, the alleged prison scandals reported to have occurred in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay have been a disturbing reminder of the mistreatment of our own PoWs by North Vietnam.

" The minute we begin to deport prisoners to other nations where they can legally be tortured, when we hold people without charges or trial, when we move prisoners around to avoid the prying inspections of the Red Cross, when prisoners die inexplicably on our watch, we are on a slippery slope toward the inhumanity that we deplore." PTI


Note: this snippet is from his full article in Foreign Affairs, Nov-Dec. 2005 issue-- the rest of which is largely on the same page as Bushco.....

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20051101faessay84604-p0/melvin-r-laird/iraq-learning-the-lessons-of-vietnam.html

[Bigmack]

1. "Whaaaaa...????" (Jon Stewart imitation)

Laird... hmmm. Wasn't he involved in the clusterfuck that was Vietnam? Yes... he was one of the "best and brightest" group of dumbfucks that sustained that meatgrinder.

"....viable South Vietnamese army"? Riiiiiight! When NV started south, the army ran like bunnies..... with a few notable exceptions.

"Hey.. want to buy an ARVN rifle? Never been fired and only dropped once."

Why don't we just get out of there and let those poor Iraqis have the civil war that only a tyrant like Saddam could postpone? That war might even kill fewer Iraqis than American presence does.

[shance]

2. Who's creating this "army"? Donald Rumsfeld.

I wouldn't trust any 'army' Rumsfeld was creating.