Friday, November 17, 2006

Bush in Vietnam

George W. Bush finally made it to Vietnam - only as a civilian. He is there for trade talks, read that sweat shops. He said that we won't make the mistake in Iraq that we did in Vietnam, "quitting before the job is done." He gets that from henry kissinger, the war crimes guy from the 1970's. Kissinger has told bush that the reason we lost Vietnam was because the public lost support for the war, but we were in fact winning the war when we started to withdraw. The problem is that Bush really believes that - there is no way the Vietnamese would ever stop fighting for independence. Kissinger must have drank the coolaid and served some to Bush - There was no way we could have won that war, except killing all the vietnamese and you know the expression, "let god sort them out." The Pentagon Papers revealed that the CIA knew the war was unwinable - the strength of the Vietcong in the south was overwhelming. Bush gets poor advice from his advisors - he surrounds himself with advisors who have hidden agendas, who revise history and spin history for their own ideological goals. What happened to Kissinger the Realpolitik guy? You know, we have no permanent interests other than what advances our interests? Kissinger is an egomaniac who cannot accept that he was wrong, so he spins the history of the Vietnam war to make himself look like the rejected genius who was right all along.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

We're contemporaries, so I expect that, like me, the selective service draft was an important topic for you when you were in college. I write this simply to suggest that you check out the website and candidacy of the first announced Democrat for President in 2008, Mike Gravel at www.gravel2008.us. As someone attuned to the history of the VN War, you will recall that Gravel was the only elected official to have the backbone to release the Pentagon Papers obtained from Daniel Ellsberg -- thus assuring that the American people would receive access to the truth behind our country's involvement in that dirty war. Similarly, Gravel had the guts to take on the Nixon Administration in a one man filibuster to end the draft. He's been an out spoken critic of the war in Iraq and has been working for years to open the process of government. I urge you to check out his ideas and, if you agree that he deserves to get his message out, I hope that you will suggest that your network give his candidacy a boost. You know that the powers that be won't want to give an outsider, a straight talking maverick a fair shake. So, it's up to us to provide enough juice so that Mike's ideas to "Let the People Decide" can have a true impact. He's out there trying to make it happen and I urge you to give him your thoughtful consideration. Thanks to all.