TIME: Bush's Risky Vietnam Gambit

[seafan]

Bush's Risky Vietnam Gambit

By MASSIMO CALABRESI/WASHINGTON
August 23, 2007




President Bush pauses during a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convertion (sic) on Wednesday, August 22, 2007, in Kansas City, Mo.
Evan Vucci / AP

Politically, President Bush has reached the point all gamblers fear: being so far down that higher stakes start to look worth the risk. Public support for his handling of the war in Iraq is already abysmal, with 70% against him and only 25% still in his camp. So perhaps he felt he had very little to lose when Wednesday, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City, Mo., he effectively doubled down, arguing not only that America needs to stay in Iraq until a stable democracy can take root, but also implying we should have done the same in Vietnam a generation ago.

The speech marks the start of a weeks-long campaign in the run-up to the politically charged September report card to be delivered to Congress by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Bush will give a second speech next week at the American Legion in Reno, Nevada, and another a week later on a trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit taking place this year in Sydney, Australia. The speeches will coincide with the launch of a $15 million ad campaign by a group called "Freedom's Watch" — which counts former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer as one of its founders — aimed at bolstering flagging support for the war.

Both Bush and "Freedom's Watch", which the White House says is operating independently of the administration, will attempt to cast the war in Iraq as another in a long progression of noble American efforts to bring liberty to benighted regions of the world.

.....

Bush said the loss in Vietnam showed there were both humanitarian and strategic reasons for staying in Iraq. "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'," he said. "There's another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam, and we can hear it in the words of the enemy we face in today's struggle — those who came to our soil and killed thousands of citizens on September the 11th, 2001." Bush then quoted top al Qaeda figures citing the U.S. retreat from Vietnam as both an example of American weakness and a goal to aim for in the Middle East. "Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price for American credibility, but the terrorists see it differently. We must listen to the words of the enemy."

.....

"The Iraqis are no closer to political reconciliation and the President's Iraq policy is not working," Reid's statement said, "President Bush should stop politicking and work with Congress to change direction in Iraq so that we can start bringing our troops home and ensure that our valiant veterans receive the care they deserve."
But Bush, bolstered by the relatively good news from Baghdad, appears to be in no mood for compromise. The President looked as comfortable as ever delivering his favorite tropes Wednesday. He beamed as he said, "The greatest weapon in the arsenal of democracy is the desire for liberty written into the human heart by our creator." He leaned in for emphasis when he said, "A free Iraq will be a massive defeat for al Qaeda. It'll be an example that provides hope for millions throughout the Middle East. It'll be a friend of the United States, and it's going to be an important ally in this ideological struggle of the 21st century."

.....

In the end, it is the familiarity — critics would say the lack of credibility — of those themes that provide the answer to Bush's risky invocation of Vietnam. He has so often emphasized the disastrous ramifications of failure and the potential glories of victory, they no longer hold the same currency with a war-tired public. So, given how low support for the war is, why not add the specter of Vietnam to the costs of defeat? And why not suggest that victory in Iraq could help expunge the indignity of America's loss in Vietnam? Petraeus and Crocker will say what they will regardless of Bush's assertions, so raising the rhetorical stakes in the hopes of bolstering political support ahead of their report is the only card Bush has left to play.

THIS ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF IRAQ WILL NEVER END AS LONG AS GEORGE W. BUSH REMAINS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

[Vincardog]

1. If THIS ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF IRAQ WILL NEVER END AS LONG AS GEORGE W. BUSH REMAINS IN THE WHITE

HOUSE.

Why don't we just remove him and end the illegal occupation?

NOW

[TahitiNut]

2. It's remarkable how boldly he can go into cloud-cuckoo-land ...

... considering he's surrounded by people who (both literally and figuratively) would take a bullet for him.

He's a total coward who finds it easy to jeopardize others from his own position of safety - with only 'upside' risks.

[beberocks]

3. This is all about trying to stop his base from deserting him

The brain-dead GOPers are the only ones that think Vietnam was winnable. A few of the GOPers are realizing that Iraq is a disaster and they are starting to worry about a draft (God forbid anyone actually demands they pay for this damn war!).

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. Have been thinking about making a website firing Chimp and Darth

I know there are many "You're Fired" websites, blogs, etc. out the on the Internet, but was thinking...

What if there were to be a website that does not allow for commentary, has to track and keep cookies to keep people from signing more than once,
and is all about the voice of the people, American citizens,
(would want to try some way to set it up by states, districts for registered voters...can that be done?),
and all those who want them fired NOW, are delivered to coincide with the Petreaus report delivery?

Have been thinking that IF there could be such a site created, it would be addressing the fact that the current Congress refusal to put impeachment on the table, and so the signatures gathered would speak not only to Congress, but be a unified voice that these thugs have to go.


Sadly, I'm not a blogger, nor do I have the set up or skills to make such a site...

[seafan]

5. Sometimes words are just inadequate.

(Hoang Van Cuong/Reuters)

A Vietnamese man is punched by an American while trying to grab a ride on the last US helicopter out of Saigon in 1975



We must not withdraw as we did from Vietnam, says Bush

August 22, 2007

[npincus]

6. "you've got to catapult the propaganda"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxnegxNEDAc

[SteveM]

7. Strange, the article doesn't mention the other reason Bush brought up Vietnam:

Culture War. All the stereotypes, all the hatred and all the quite successful framing by the far right stems from the divisions of the 'sixties. How soon MSM forgets that time.