The Man is Baffling
Posted November 17, 2006 on 4:47 pm | In the category Iraq, U.S. Foreign Policy | by John“HANOI, Nov. 17 — In his first day in the capital of a country that was America’s wartime enemy during his youth, President Bush said today that the American experience in Vietnam contained lessons for the war in Iraq. Chief among them, he said, was that ‘we’ll succeed unless we quit.’ ” [link to NYTimes]
So stated our President during a visit to the nation the US fought for over 10 years before retreating bloodied and bowed. The US lost more than 57,000 in Vietnam and the Vietnamese lost more than 2 million. And here comes Bush telling the Vietnamese that we should have fought longer - “stayed the course” as it were. He is the first sitting President to visit Vietnam (I believe) since that dreadful episode in our nation’s history. So what does he offer? Gracious apologies? No. Essentially he says that - and this is said on Vietnamese soil - if we had just stayed longer, whatever it would have taken - 5, 10, 50 years - we could have beaten those commies. And that’s the lesson of Vietnam according this man - if we just stay in Iraq for 5, 10, 50 years, whatever it takes -we’re gonna beat those Iraqis. Whew. Nothing else to say to that.
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Perhaps Bush was just his usual inarticulate self? Could he have been pandering to our erstwhile nemesis? Isn’t it possible he was complementing their stamina? Like he saying they taught us the value of staying the course? I guess they couldn’t have left but they coulda quit.
Comment by Kiwi — November 17, 2006 #
Granted, it can be difficult to understand what the hell Bush is saying; here is a bit more from the Times that clarifies…
“In private, some White House officials concede that Mr. Bush’s visit to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, scheduled many months ago, is proving to be spectacularly poorly timed, because of all the uncomfortable parallels between the two wars.
For example, just as Lyndon B. Johnson did in 1968, Mr. Bush has ousted his longtime defense secretary and nominated a realist with “fresh eyes” to replace him. Just like President Johnson in 1968, he is conducting a broad rethinking of strategy, and is hearing options he does not like.”…
““We tend to want there to be instant success in the world,” Mr. Bush said after a lunch with Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, “and the task in Iraq is going to take a while.”
A minor comment - Bush is not the first sitting American president to visit Vietnem - that honor goes to another guy who missed serving there - Bill Clinton.
Comment by Jeff — November 17, 2006 #