IRAQ IS NO VIETNAM - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY
"Bringing back memories of Vietnam, " or , " Iraq has become a quagmire like Vietnam, " or, " just as in Vietnam, " or this famous misleading quote from Senator Ted Kennedy, "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam." I heard the news reports from Saturday's protests against our presence in Iraq until the comparisons of Iraq and Vietnam made me sick to my stomach. 60's throwback icons like Susan Sarandon, and, "Hanoi, " Jane Fonda were among the , "celebrities, " who spoke at the Washington Mall. Now that a new generation is listening to politics , "Hanoi Jane, " has decided to come out of the anti-war closet thinking that the newbies have not heard of her traitorous acts during Vietnam when she visited the North Vietnamese stating that our troops were war criminals and then at the , "Hanoi Hilton," an infamous POW prison in Hanoi the capitol of North Vietnam attempted to coax our soldiers into admitting their, "war crimes, " against North Vietnam. Well Ms. Fonda we do remember and we still hold you accountable for your acts and still consider you a traitor.
Accounts of the protests range from a few thousand to over 100 thousand, the latter estimated by the organizers of the protest but denied by Mall park police. This is the first misconception as a Vietnam comparison. The protest of the 60's were many times extremely violent and when they met at the Mall the numbers were in the hundreds of thousands. Many of those who protest today are left overs who still live in the 60's and jump on any, "anti," band wagon to bring back old times. The , "Hey, Hey, Ho, Hoers, " and the rhymers were in abundance. While there is opposition to Iraq it is small in comparison to Vietnam
The only true comparison of Iraq and Vietnam is the way it is being used as a political tool and that the Democrats are threatening to defund the war or restate the use of force authorization issued in 2001 in order to tie the President's hands and leave the troops abandoned as was done near the end of Vietnam.
Unlike Vietnam US loses are minimal in comparison. Combat deaths in Vietnam range from a low figure of 57, 605 to a high figure of 58, 159, with the number on the Vietnam War Memorial at 58, 178. Iraq combat deaths as of January 27th are at 3, 079. The Iraq invasion was in March of 2003 which equates to 46 months in theatre and an average of 67 American loses per month. United States combat involvement in Vietnam lasted nearly ten years with a peak total of 553, 000 troops in 1969. The peak years of combat were from 1964 - 1971 with total combat loses of 56, 009 during the eight year period. This is an average of 7002 American loses per year, which is a far cry from the totals of Iraq. While every soldier lost is a tragedy especially for their loved ones the distortion by the media and the left with continual body counts and Vietnam comparisons is ridiculous.
Unlike Vietnam we are fighting an enemy that attacked us. Many on the left try to spin that Iraq is not part of the global war against terrorism but the evidence and the truth shows otherwise. While Iraq was not directly involved with 9/11, documents are numerous showing Hussein's support financially to Al Qaeda and many forget the terrorist training camps especially that which contained an aircraft fuselage used for teaching the most effective way to hijack a plane. Also forgotten were the murals showing planes hitting the twin towers with Iraqi symbols on the planes. Additionally there are continual reports of battles against Al Qaeda in Iraq and the call by their leaders to their loyalists to continue the fight with the US in Iraq.
Where Iraq has similarities to Vietnam lies in the continual media bias against the war and the use of their influence to shape American opinion and feelings about the war. As in Vietnam every news account makes mention of a body count not as a memoriam to those who have sacrificed but as a tool to turn the country against the war. And as in Vietnam this tactic is working. The other similarity is the political use of the war to push an agenda. Democrats are using Iraq to hammer at the President and in so are assisting the media in turning the nation against the war. Political badgering played a pivotal role in turning America against Vietnam and it is doing the same today.
The President mentioned at the end of the State of the Union Address that, "our cause in the world is right." While most in retrospect see little justification to Vietnam the goals and accomplishments in Iraq are just and necessary. While many on the left claim otherwise in their political use of the war, our troops have brought freedom from a tyrannical regime to more than 50 million people. We have eliminated a threat to the world through the distribution of weaponry both conventional and WMD that were being and would have been used by Islamic radicals in their Jihad against the United States. Victory in Iraq brings with it a free ally, a stability through Democracy in the region, the elimination of a harbor of terrorism and a country who terrorist would use as a base of operations. It also brings with it a weaker Iran as a free nation will be at Iran's border showing the people of that Islamic terror state what freedom is and that they too can have a country free of the Islamic radical influence.
Ken Taylor
Accounts of the protests range from a few thousand to over 100 thousand, the latter estimated by the organizers of the protest but denied by Mall park police. This is the first misconception as a Vietnam comparison. The protest of the 60's were many times extremely violent and when they met at the Mall the numbers were in the hundreds of thousands. Many of those who protest today are left overs who still live in the 60's and jump on any, "anti," band wagon to bring back old times. The , "Hey, Hey, Ho, Hoers, " and the rhymers were in abundance. While there is opposition to Iraq it is small in comparison to Vietnam
The only true comparison of Iraq and Vietnam is the way it is being used as a political tool and that the Democrats are threatening to defund the war or restate the use of force authorization issued in 2001 in order to tie the President's hands and leave the troops abandoned as was done near the end of Vietnam.
Unlike Vietnam US loses are minimal in comparison. Combat deaths in Vietnam range from a low figure of 57, 605 to a high figure of 58, 159, with the number on the Vietnam War Memorial at 58, 178. Iraq combat deaths as of January 27th are at 3, 079. The Iraq invasion was in March of 2003 which equates to 46 months in theatre and an average of 67 American loses per month. United States combat involvement in Vietnam lasted nearly ten years with a peak total of 553, 000 troops in 1969. The peak years of combat were from 1964 - 1971 with total combat loses of 56, 009 during the eight year period. This is an average of 7002 American loses per year, which is a far cry from the totals of Iraq. While every soldier lost is a tragedy especially for their loved ones the distortion by the media and the left with continual body counts and Vietnam comparisons is ridiculous.
Unlike Vietnam we are fighting an enemy that attacked us. Many on the left try to spin that Iraq is not part of the global war against terrorism but the evidence and the truth shows otherwise. While Iraq was not directly involved with 9/11, documents are numerous showing Hussein's support financially to Al Qaeda and many forget the terrorist training camps especially that which contained an aircraft fuselage used for teaching the most effective way to hijack a plane. Also forgotten were the murals showing planes hitting the twin towers with Iraqi symbols on the planes. Additionally there are continual reports of battles against Al Qaeda in Iraq and the call by their leaders to their loyalists to continue the fight with the US in Iraq.
Where Iraq has similarities to Vietnam lies in the continual media bias against the war and the use of their influence to shape American opinion and feelings about the war. As in Vietnam every news account makes mention of a body count not as a memoriam to those who have sacrificed but as a tool to turn the country against the war. And as in Vietnam this tactic is working. The other similarity is the political use of the war to push an agenda. Democrats are using Iraq to hammer at the President and in so are assisting the media in turning the nation against the war. Political badgering played a pivotal role in turning America against Vietnam and it is doing the same today.
The President mentioned at the end of the State of the Union Address that, "our cause in the world is right." While most in retrospect see little justification to Vietnam the goals and accomplishments in Iraq are just and necessary. While many on the left claim otherwise in their political use of the war, our troops have brought freedom from a tyrannical regime to more than 50 million people. We have eliminated a threat to the world through the distribution of weaponry both conventional and WMD that were being and would have been used by Islamic radicals in their Jihad against the United States. Victory in Iraq brings with it a free ally, a stability through Democracy in the region, the elimination of a harbor of terrorism and a country who terrorist would use as a base of operations. It also brings with it a weaker Iran as a free nation will be at Iran's border showing the people of that Islamic terror state what freedom is and that they too can have a country free of the Islamic radical influence.
Ken Taylor
posted by The Liberal Lie The Conservative Truth | 10:30 AM
13 Comments:
Excellent, Ken! There is another true comparison to Iraq: Hanoi Jane and J. Freaking Kerry! They never grew up! They are exactly the same people they were when they were screwing over this country and our troops during Vietnam. Can you imagine never growing up? These people have never grown up and at their age it's apparent that they never will. Both of them are traitors and I don't believe they even deserve to be living in this country enjoying the protection of our constitution. Kerry is going around making vile speeches in foreign countries, as usual. He acts like such a foreigner I don't think that Customs should let him back in!
"Hanoi Jane, " has decided to come out of the anti-war closet thinking that the newbies have not heard of her traitorous acts during Vietnam"
If Hanoi Jane went to Iraq and did the things she did in Vietnam, that is, sitting on an anti tank gun or visiting American prisoners, she might well come back without her head. Do you think the anti-war sob sisiters would re-think their position then?
Of course not. The only thing we can count on is the fact we can't count on the terrorists to behave like humans and that the anti war sob sisters will never get it.
In comparing and contrasting, we should note that both views on Iraq
use the comparison argument:
"the military's hands are tied, let them take off the gloves and fight" (apparently 5 times the WWII bomb tonnage on VN meant our
hands were tied)...and from the other direction, "Why pour more
troops into a bottomless rathole, the more you push, the more they
push back" as if we could see some
50 year conflict with horrible
casualties. Hopefully, General
Petraeus, an expert in assymetrical warfare, can bring
a stabilization about.
“While every soldier lost is a tragedy especially for their loved ones the distortion by the media and the left with continual body counts and Vietnam comparisons is ridiculous.”
I echo those words. Every loss is horrible but in a war there will be loses and to try and compare this to Vietnam is ridiculous. The other one I love is comparing the fact that we have been in this fight longer than WWII. Compare those statistics. For those who live in the world of a war “should take no longer than…” or “no more than X lives can be lost…” you are the people with the mindset that cost us victories. That is not how you fight a war.
A while back I was sitting in the Pentagon speaking with a high-ranking general. When the issue of Vietnam came up, he contends we won that war. Not in the conventional sense, and what happened at home to the returning troops was a disgrace. But as we sat there, on the TV was the President of the United States giving a speech from where? Vietnam. The communists did not grab hold of that country as they otherwise would’ve. If we had truly lost in Vietnam how was the President speaking freely there?
We didn’t lose the war there, we lost it at home and in some of our minds. Iraq is so different than that situation. They love to compare old wars until you compare what the sixteenth President had to do to save the country. Then we are just going “too far back.”
“the military's hands are tied, let them take off the gloves…”
- That is why I can stay confident. The new rules of engagement are going to let the soldiers fight, not the politicians and lawyers.
What you're neglecting to say is that in the Vietnam era, and I am old enough to remember, causualties included the wounded, and not only those who were killed.
Anyway, we kicked Hitler's ass under a Democrat. We lost Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq, under Republican (p)residents.
Don't believe me. Look it up.
Mudkitty the number I quoted from the Vietnam War Memorial are the number of names of soldiers killed in action in Vietnam. The wounded are not on the Memorial.
Korea was begun under Truman a Democrat. Vietnam was also started under Democrats.
And you assumption that Iraq is lost is not only wrong but a distortion and misleading of the truth.
Great post Ken.
Who could forget the images of Hanoi Jane sitting on the enemy gun looking as if she was having sex with the damn thing?
What alot of people are forgetting was President Bush's speech after 9-11, he said we will hunt down "Terrorists", Saddam WAS a terrorist!
I find it incredible that these Lunatics are out there protesting a war that the United Nations passed 17 resolutions on, and Congress voted for!
And this without a draft, and an all Volunteer Military!!
Nutjobs all.
Mudkitty,
Ken is right, the Viet Nam memorial only includes the names of those killed. NONE of the wounded are on the wall. Please before you type this drivel research it first.
Anyway, we kicked Hitler's ass under a Democrat. We lost Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq, under Republican (p)residents.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Again, Vietnam was started by DEMOCRATS, Kennedy, then Johnson!
It was ended by a Republican.
Semper Fi, gentleman. Keep up the good work!
Yes, and the war mongers on the right spported the Korean and Vietnam wars. Don't pretend. And I wrote that in my post earlier.
I suggest you all refresh your knowledge of what quaqmire means. It's something that once your in, it's very difficult to get out of.
You republicans always leave your messes to the democrats to clean up.
No Hard WMD Proof, '02 Report Said
As Bush Admin. Pushed Weapons Claims, Defense Intelligence Was Skeptical
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/07/iraq/main557473.shtml
Quote
"…I thought: 'My God, if this is the best intelligence they had and we find nothing, what about the rest?'"
Hans Blix,
on U.S. weapons intelligence
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS/AP) The U.S. Defense Department's intelligence service reported last September that it had no reliable evidence that Iraq had chemical agents in weaponized form, officials said Friday.
A White House spokesman says a small portion of the still-classified report is being taken out of context. He says the entire document's conclusions support the Bush administration's position.
According to excerpts from the study by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which were reported by Bloomberg, it found there was "no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or whether Iraq has — or will — establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities."
The briefing paper said Iraq "probably" had illegal chemical stockpiles, and also reported that Iraq was thought to have biological weapons, but said the amount and condition of the weaponized germs was uncertain.
The existence of the DIA report was first disclosed by U.S. News & World Report. Two Pentagon officials who had read the summary confirmed Friday that it said DIA had no hard evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons.
The skeptical study's release in September coincided with Bush administration efforts to mount a public case for the urgency of disarming Iraq, by force if necessary.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others argued that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical, biological and other weapons and was hiding them.
Two months after major fighting in Iraq ended, U.S. officials have yet to find any chemical or other mass-killing weapons, although they still express confidence that some will turn up.
Despite searches at some 300 sites, and the capture of several high-ranking Iraqis, no evidence has turned up. Two suspected mobile biological weapons factories were found, but showed no sign of having been used to create weapons.
Committees in the U.S. Senate and House, the British parliament and the Danish government are looking into the prewar claims.
On Friday, the Senate Armed Services convened a closed-door hearing focusing on the mission of the 75th Exploitation Task Force, which made the initial effort to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction at the conclusion of the war, and the follow-on search team, called the Iraq Survey Group.
Rumsfeld recently raised the possibility that Iraq destroyed the weapons before the war started March 20. He also has said he believes some remain and will be discovered when U.S. search teams find knowledgeable Iraqis who are willing to disclose the locations.
The president addressed the issue in a visit to Qatar on Thursday. "We're on the look. We'll reveal the truth," Mr. Bush said.
The DIA's analysis is just one piece of an intelligence mosaic that Rumsfeld and other senior administrations could consider in making their own assessment of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons capability.
However, the CIA is conducting an internal review — which Rumsfeld commissioned well before the war — into the accuracy of its prewar intelligence.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said he was surprised and disappointed at the low quality of British and U.S. intelligence.
Blix also said it was too soon to judge whether Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and it would be no surprise if coalition forces in Iraq found chemical or biological arms.
However, Blix, in an interview Thursday with British Broadcasting Corp. radio, said U.N. inspectors found only three sites useful, and they did not relate to weapons.
Blix said he was surprised by that because, "we had been told that they would give the best intelligence they had, so I thought: 'My God, if this is the best intelligence they had and we find nothing, what about the rest?'"
Blix has offered to return to Iraq to resume weapons checks but the United States does not support that.
For the first time since the war started Friday, a separate team of U.N. experts arrived in Iraq. They were International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, not weapons hunters, sent to help U.S. forces secure a known nuclear site that American forces had left unguarded. It has been looted and nuclear material may be missing.
The United States tried to keep the IAEA out of postwar Iraq. But it reluctantly agreed to allow the agency's return under pressure from the arms-control community, which was concerned about the nuclear plant's safety and U.S. capability to secure the area and account for its contents.
The Pentagon has stressed that the IAEA visit would be a one-time event, limited the number of IAEA staff to seven and said the assessment would have to be completed within two weeks.
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