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November 17, 2006
"The president said there was much to be learned from the divisive Vietnam War..."
Really. Bush actually said there was "much to be learned from the divisive Vietnam War." And before you get your hopes up high, here's the fuller quote:
"My first reaction is history has a long march to it, and societies change and relationships can constantly be altered to the good," Bush said after speeding past signs of both poverty and the commerce produced by Asia's fastest-growing economy.The president said there was much to be learned from the divisive Vietnam War -- the longest conflict in U.S. history -- as his administration contemplates new strategies for the increasingly difficult war in Iraq, now in its fourth year. But his critics see parallels with Vietnam -- a determined insurgency and a death toll that has drained public support -- that spell danger for dragging out U.S. involvement in Iraq.
"It's just going to take a long period of time for the ideology that is hopeful -- and that is an ideology of freedom -- to overcome an ideology of hate," Bush said after having lunch at his lakeside hotel with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of America's strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts.
"We'll succeed," Bush added, "unless we quit."
I'm just trying to imagine what one must think happened during the Vietnam War to have learned the lesson that "we'll succeed unless we quit."
Posted by zeynep at November 17, 2006 10:12 PM
Comments
Love the Bushonics. Are there any wars that aren't divisive?
Posted by: Robin at November 18, 2006 05:26 AM
Actually the lesson of the Vietnam War is: keep the helicopters on the Embassy roof.
Posted by: rootlesscosmo at November 18, 2006 07:31 PM
Remember how Saddam looked when they pulled him out of his hole? That's how we've got to start seeing Bush. Not a big man on a pedestal anymore. A pathetic, cornered murderer, a stammering idiot, a nobody, blood running down his pants, wandering through the rubble laid waste by his crimes and follies. What do you expect? Who cares what nonsense he gurgles? Bring him to justice, put him in jail, but the real task is to clean up this mess and take control in the name of reason and humanity. Fuck Bush.
Posted by: mark at November 18, 2006 11:56 PM
I wonder if someone would be able to get HIM to Baghdad, let HIM step onto a ring with Saddam on the other corner, and don't let HIM quit until HE succeeds. At least, in former centuries Chief Commanders of Armies were also in the battlefield.
Posted by: Juan at November 20, 2006 04:04 AM
The only lessons the government chooses to learn from Vietnam is how to maintain popular support for the war and continually brainwash us into thinking this war is justified.
Posted by: Dave at November 21, 2006 10:17 PM
``I'm just trying to imagine what one must think happened during the Vietnam War to have learned the lesson that "we'll succeed unless we quit.''
From what I read, it seems that there is a ``stabbed in the back'' account of the US war in SE Asia circulating in conservative circles. I wonder if this is Bush speaking in code to his base again. (As he did with a reference to the Dred Scott decision in one of the debates with Kerry in 2004.)
Posted by: Paul Lyon at November 26, 2006 07:58 PM