Nov 21, 2006

Bush's Vietnam Field trip

Olbermann's special comment on Bush's trip to Vietnam:

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EXCERPTS:

It is a shame and it is embarrassing to us all when President Bush travels 8,000 miles only to wind up avoiding reality again. And it is pathetic to listen to a man talk unrealistically about Vietnam, who permitted the “Swift-Boating” of not one but two American heroes of that war, in consecutive presidential campaigns. But most importantly — important beyond measure — his avoidance of reality is going to wind up killing more Americans.

And that is indefensible and fatal.

Asked if there were lessons about Iraq to be found in our experience in Vietnam, Mr. Bush said that there were, and he immediately proved he had no clue what they were.
“One lesson is,” he said, “that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while.”

“We’ll succeed,” the president concluded, “unless we quit.”

If that’s the lesson about Iraq that Mr. Bush sees in Vietnam, then he needs a tutor.
Or we need somebody else making the decisions about Iraq. Mr. Bush, there are a dozen central, essential lessons to be derived from our nightmare in Vietnam, but “we’ll succeed unless we quit,” is not one of them.

The primary one — which should be as obvious to you as the latest opinion poll showing that only 31 percent of this country agrees with your tragic Iraq policy — is that if you try to pursue a war for which the nation has lost its stomach, you and it are finished. Ask Lyndon Johnson.

The second most important lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: If you don’t have a stable local government to work with, you can keep sending in Americans until hell freezes over and it will not matter. Ask Vietnamese Presidents Diem or Thieu.

The third vital lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: Don’t pretend it’s something it’s not. For decades we were warned that if we didn’t stop “communist aggression” in Vietnam, communist agitators would infiltrate and devour the small nations of the world, and make their insidious way, stealthily, to our doorstep. The war machine of 1968 had this “domino theory.”
Your war machine of 2006 has this nonsense about Iraq as “the central front in the war on terror.”

The fourth pivotal lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: If the same idiots who told Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon to stay there for the sake of “peace With honor” are now telling you to stay in Iraq, they’re probably just as wrong now, as they were then ... Dr. Kissinger.

And the fifth crucial lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush — which somebody should’ve told you about long before you plunged this country into Iraq — is that if you lie your country into a war, your war, your presidency will be consigned to the scrap heap of history.



(...)

And these lessons from Vietnam, Mr. Bush, these priceless, transparent lessons, writ large as if across the very sky, are still a mystery to you. “We’ll succeed unless we quit.”
No, sir.
We will succeed against terrorism, for our country’s needs, toward binding up the nation’s wounds when you quit, quit the monumental lie that is our presence in Iraq.
And in the interim, Mr. Bush, an American kid will be killed there, probably tonight or tomorrow. And here, sir, endeth the lesson.

Full Article

Crooks and Liars has the video up

Other Vietnam-related Insights: Kissinger says Military Victory Not possible

2 comments:

Frederick said...

Ahhh, there we go. Keith is going to be geating more ratings than O'Reilly in the next two years...bank on it.

Faded said...

Well, in a sane world, Olbermann's decent thoughtful and clear reporting is miles beyond the weird, abusive ranting of OReilly...

Olbermann makes valid points and conclusions. O'Reilly just attacks, a lot of the time, even his targets are unclear.

It's a shame that as we speak, more Americans watch a man talk about Wars on "Christmas" than the man who talks about the Americans dying every single day in an actual warzone.

But this most likely has more to do with Fox being forcefed and people having to pay extra for MSNBC.

Another Blow against the Faux Moralists at Fox- the OJ thang got cancelled- And Ol' Rupert even had to apologize. Do YOU REALIZE how much that has to piss that wanker off?