Vietnam & Iraq; More Parallels

Recently, Brig. Gen. John Johns (Ret.) appeared on C-SPAN and drew parallels between the U.S. involvement in Vietnam & the current quagmire in Iraq. The general has been teaching National Security Strategy for the last 14 years. I paraphrase...

"70% of the reason the U.S. continued its involvement in Vietnam was simply to avoid the embarassment of defeat."

And Lt. Gen. Robert Gard (Ret.) noted ...

"By the Spring of 1965, the Johnson Administration knew that the war was unwinnable. Nevertheless, in March 1965, the President ordered a 'surge' of 20,000 more troops."

"There had been 24,000 U.S.deaths in Vietnam by 1965. Five years later, 34,000 additional battle fatalities had been recorded."

"President Johnson simply did not want to go down in history as the first U.S. president to lose a war."

As I wrote in this blog on 10/04/06, "Maureen Dowd - Dr. Strangelove's Second Chance",

'As recently released tapes, diaries and notes clearly indicate, Kissinger and Nixon purposely delayed any U.S. pullout from Vietnam until after the 1972 elections. Nixon knew all along that the war was unwinnable and knowingly sent young Americans to their deaths for purely political motives. On one tape Nixon says to Kissinger, "The U.S. cannot win this war. The South Vietnam regime is too corrupt" (Tapes played on CSPAN several months ago--How many Americans listened, I wonder?).'

And, yet again, American lives are being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance, vanity, and incompetence...by the stubborn, idiot Emperor, Bush II.