The Pentagon's announcement yesterday that we're shipping 12,000 more troops to Iraq (for a total of 150,000) is troubling. Many of those troops are having their tours extended. It seems that those Iraqi troops we were supposed to train can't do the job -- as John Kerry mentioned several times in the Presidential debates. If you remember, POTUS specifically scoffed at that suggestion in the debates. What a difference five weeks makes.
I don't know if there are real parallels or not, but I have been reading two books on LBJ, Merle Miller's oral history and one of his taped white house conversations (Reaching for Glory: The Secret Lyndon Johnson Tapes, 1964-1965. Michael Beschloss).
You see LBJ get sucked into that war even as he has great misgivings about the whole enterprise. At the end of that book, we are rapidly escalating the troop presence...up to 200,000 by December. Johnson is distressed that we have lost 400 troops. . . a third of the number that have already died in Iraq. We would end up with over 540,000 troops in 'Nam, 60,000 dead American boys and hundreds of thousands injured. Before the end of the war, our helicopters had brought over 400,000 boys to hospitals in Vietnam.
Tet in '68 is when America turned against the war. It was shocking! We were "winning." We won the battles of The Tet Offensive. Technically. We killed half of the Vietcong army, and many tens of thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers. But we lost 6,000 troops in a few days, and 14,000 boys that year. And that was winning! The Vietcong launched a suicide mission hoping to end the war in one sweep. They took heavy, heavy losses, and to Americans it appeared they could do it again and again. Yes, America won Tet, but then General Westmoreland (or Wastenomoreland) asked for 200,000 more troops to be sent over.
Iraq is not Vietnam and The Domino Theory does not apply. One thing I think we do know: The President of the United States intends to finish the war. No matter what the cost. /jack
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4 comments:
You fuckin pussie democrat. John Kerry would already have the army coming home. Maybe the terorists would bomb your town. They probaly should
Nice. You only misspelled about four words in two sentences. Which makes me think you are actually a friend pulling my crank! If not, I hope you're not draftable. Knuckleheads like you make primo cannon fodder. Excelsior! /jack brummet
yeah , i hate democrats cause im from texas and i have small balls just like my homie Bin Laden
yeah , i hate democrats cause im from texas and i have small balls just like my homie Bin Laden
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