3996 ! ! !

How sad, trivializing Vietnam on the basis of Democratic vrs. Republican leadership, when they both were at fault. Never should have gotten involved in Vietnam, never should have dragged it out so long. Old soldiers never die, they just send younger ones to die.

And I must remind a7 of Five-Deferment Cheney.

It literally is Bush's war.

The point, a7, is that Bush voluntarily invaded Iraq when Iraq was no threat to the US. It literally is Bush's war. Instead of quashing the Taliban and al Qaida in Afghanistan, he diverted his attention and our resources to Iraq.

Republican Ike got us into Vietnam, which was not threat. He should have known better. Kennedy and Johnson should have left. Nixon prolonged Vietnam to save face.

Poor old man, trying to remember your glory days.

The point, a7, is that Bush voluntarily invaded Iraq when Iraq was no threat to the US. It literally is Bush's war. Instead of quashing the Taliban and al Qaida in Afghanistan, he diverted his attention and our resources to Iraq.

Republican Ike got us into Vietnam, which was not threat. He should have known better. Kennedy and Johnson should have left. Nixon prolonged Vietnam to save face.

From your link:

"Nixon and Kissinger quickly agreed upon two premises about American policy in Vietnam. First, the war in Vietnam was not "winnable" in any conventional sense of the term. Public opinion would tolerate neither an escalation nor the continuation of a status quo that included over 1,000 killed per month. Second, a unilateral withdrawal was not feasible because the political costs, both domestic and international, were unacceptable. Withdrawal would dissolve Nixon's political base at home and, as Kissinger continually emphasized, undermine American credibility abroad. [2] Apart from the military situation in Vietnam, the political problem confronting President Nixon was complex. How could Nixon "buy time" to achieve his understanding of "peace with honor" without succumbing to Lyndon Johnson's fate of eroding public support?"

How many US servicemen died while we gradually withdrew to save face and credibility?

After Eisenhower took office in 1952, US aid to the French effort in Vietnam increased. The U.S was paying 80 percent of the financial cost of the war against the Viet Minh by 1954.

Nixon prolonged the war way too long.

"In his public statements, for example, Nixon had emphasized the primacy of ending the war, extricating American troops, and gaining the release of American POWs. In practice these policy goals were held hostage to his other policy goal of protecting the credibility of the United States as a loyal and effective counterrevolutionary power and his personal political goal of winning the 1972 election."
http://hnn.us/articles/3073.html

This is just my opion so go easy on me but if I'm not mistaken (and I was once) part of Iraqs surrender terms after desert storm was the right to have inspecters access anytime anywhere in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, I can't count the times the inspectors
were denied access to certain areas and even told to leave on several occasions, even though no weapons were found the terms were broken the very first time the inspectors were denied access. I beleive the U.S. showed extreme patients with Iraq, this would still be going on if someone hadn't have done something, however saddam is dead and the war in Iraq now is a civil war and we know there are no weapons of mass destruction so our job should be done, from now on we should support the new government finacally but let them die for their own country now, just an opinion

Wrong, wrong, wrong. War is a blunt political instrument. If the politics and reason are wrong to begin with, the war effort is wrong.

That does sound so good and tough, doesn't it?

"...letting the fighting men do their jobs."

Does it make you feel good to say it? Feel more like a man?