Ignorant journalists and anti-Bush politicians (or is it the other way around?) are much in the news dourly comparing Iraq to Vietnam. A Google News search (Vietnam + Iraq) yields "about 7,450" hits -- for example, a USA Today story featuring Democratic Senator Robert Byrd:
Byrd, whose 45 years in the Senate encompass the Vietnam War, said the American deaths and increased fighting across Iraq should prompt the administration to figure out how to bring troops home, not send more there."Surely I am not the only one who hears echoes of Vietnam in this development," Byrd said in a speech on the Senate floor. "Surely, the administration recognizes that increasing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will only suck us deeper, deeper into the maelstrom, into the quicksand of violence that has become the hallmark of that unfortunate, miserable country."
Normally, one would easily dismiss the ravings of ex-KKK member Bobby Byrd as arrant nonsense. But, not so fast... blogger Frank J. takes note of these concerns and lists four important ways in which the two wars are, in fact similar:
• Both Vietnam and Iraq have an 'i' in them.
• Both are foreign countries.
• Both wars were opposed by stupid, smelly hippies.
• Both wars were supported and then opposed by John Kerry.
He also understands what this means:
Well, what we learned from Vietnam is that, if you lose a war like Vietnam, forever after people will question future wars by saying they are like Vietnam... Moral: Win your g'damn wars. Posted by Alan at April 12, 2004 12:44 AM